The whole purpose of my emphasis on Lucho's overall approach and Pep's overall approach focused more on how it influenced the emphasis the club placed in how the club managed the squad.
There's a clear dicotomy in how a club manages it's squad: on one side of the spectrum you have clubs like City and PSG whose squads are completely comprised of purchased players. If you have the commercial revenue or an oil sheik to back the model, no problem. However, your reliant on favorable economic conditions and if there is a drop in revenue or if the conditions change, there is bound to be a drop in a quality, and your forced to sell off valuable assets. This is why the financial crisis in 2008 and the subsequent rounds afterword changed the playing field substantially. The Premier League and Serie A's decline in Europe are good examples of the outcome of the dangers of being overly commercial.
On the flip side of the spectrum, you have clubs like Ajax, Bilbao and Dinamo Zagreb who rely either heavily or exclusively on homegrown players. Like many have pointed out in response to my posts on this, this can be vulnerable to poaching from other clubs and a lack of competition if the quality of the raised players aren't of the standard required.
I'm not nor do I feel that I've insinuated in the past that a club with the commercial power that Barça possesses completely rule out signing players in the market. Overall however, my overarching theme is highlighting the merits of leaning more towards the development side of the spectrum rather than the commercial.
To put it quantitatively, I'd put our current point at roughly 65-35 in favor of the commercial. For the most part since our golden generation is fading, we our responding by buying a majority of the squad and filling in the holes with academy prospects. Granted, we have players like Rakitic, Suarez and Neymar who have had excellent transitions into the team, and in the past players like Ronaldinho, Eto'o, Van Bommel, Rivaldo, Deco etc. have taken like a fish to water with our style. However, this is probably the most difficult club to adjust to tactically and stylistically (Madrid are the most difficult club to come to period but for different and much more frivolous reasons). Cesc, Ibrahimovic, Song, Alexis there are plenty of examples of world class players who stuck out like sore thumbs in comparison with the other players. Meanwhile, homegrown transfers like Alba and Piqué have a smooth transition. Not to mention the transition phase every player who transfers here has to go through, at other clubs you can more so just do what you did before and it works out fine. Not here. Ask Neymar.
So there is higher risk in signing players from the market here. This is why I say Pep's model is more sustainable than Lucho's. It's easier to grow players who can execute a familiar system than buy players who fit the system.
Let me emphasize this clearly. Ideally, I think Barça's lasting template should be around 65-35 in favor of the academy and development. I'm not saying we go full 100:0, clearly in the past when there were players we needed that La Masia wasn't producing, we purchased them. Not saying that's the devils work. But for me, we should only buy what La Masia isn't producing and especially if we buy, we should try buy first young players who fit the technical bill first and foremost and if it still isn't there, splash cash for a star.
Rijkaard understood this balance really well because despite having Deco, Giuly, Larson and Eto'o, he regularly gave time to Xavi, Iniesta and Messi. I'm not naive enough to think that we will always have players like this and other clubs produce players of mental and technical quality to fit at this club. But why invest all of this time and money around a youth academy and going so far as to instill a discernible style of play to facilitate this growth if your not going to use it?
We have pissed away quality players like Thiago because we gave their time to players like Alex Song, players that we need now or will need in the future. The fact that Samper has yet to play with the first team recently while Mascherano struggles to cover for Busi is just maddening to me. I'm all for making smart, shrewd signings if the quality isn't there. If we bought players like Danilo, Oliver Torres, Memphis Depay, Youri Tielemans, Paulo Dybala, when La Masia couldn't produce a match to this quality, I'd have no issue. But to buy a player when you have a player in the academy of equal or better quality is absurd to me and we've done these sort of facepalm transfers since Pep has left.
In sum, La Masia players should be given a fair chance to show if they can compete and the club is foolish to forgo a model that can provide this much success. Not saying follow it to a tee, you always have to be adaptable and tuning is always needed but I just believe keeping a basis of more homegrown players than exported players can bring us succeess financially and sportingly in the long run. There isn't a pressing need to commercialize and while I don't expect us to be able to field a La Masia 11 year in and year out, keeping at least 5 or 6 in the squad can help keep the clubs identity and investment intact.
up.
this is hilarious.
