This is always a possibility and I remarked similarly last preseason when Deulofeu barely played...yet here we are with yet another prized & pursued talent and we're to believe it again?....possible but the probability decreases
As I mentioned before, we're seeing a shift in the club's philosophy but its being minimised due to the treble producing trident...Incredibly short sighted
Lucho clearly focused on results rather than developing the club's youth talent and we've already seen the club isn't focused on developing them properly within the cantera as seen with both the B team & how few Barça youth players are featuring for La Roja
I don't see this as dramatic. It was very easy for Pep/Laporta to put such an emphasis on La Masia players and portray that as a philosophy when it produced players of Busquets caliber; it was literally the most pragmatic thing for them to do. And even then, the club always had high-profile complements from elsewhere.
And imo, it's a fallacy to assume that a different board or a different coach or anyone else would be able to better oversee the next Xavi coming out of our cantera. The pile of über-talents coming from La Masia from Puyol to Busquets created the illusion for many culés that this is somehow projectable through specific selection and practice, when it really isn't. Imagine the probability of finding a talent like Xavi, Iniesta or Busi. Then imagine having them all at the same club. And then imagine having them in a timeframe that enables them to play together for a few years. The probability of this is almost zero. Barca hit the jackpot several times in a row. And in between, many have forgotten how many players didn't make it in the meantime.
The risk of missing out on a player who has the potential to become a first team regular is actually pretty low, since talent above a certain level is obvious. Samper is Samper, and he's ridiculously talented, and will make it to the first team finally if he's patient enough. And if that involves being loaned out somewhere else in the meantime to get some playing time under his belt which Barca can't grant him, so be it. Real talent will always find it's way to the top of the pile.
But Samper is a minority. Every player who makes it through our cantera has undisputable talent, yet the main question is what he's gonna do with it and whether he'd be able to displace a first team regular in the long run. And as hard as that sounds, the overwhelming majority of La Masia graduates won't realistically be able to do so for a variety of reasons. And I agree that one of these reasons is the fact that our first team is filled to the brim with elite players. But another reason is each youth player's individual ceiling which no amount of development, practice and granted minutes will change.
For every Pique, you'll have a hundred Muniesas, for every Busquets, you'll have a thousand JdS and for every Messi you'll have a million Bojans. And in my opinion, we're not doing the youth players a favour to pretend otherwise.
For example, just watch the patient midfielder be turned into a patient rightback for the sole reason to squeeze him in somewhere on the teamsheet. Woudn't it be better for everyone involved if he was just transfered to a fitting club where he'd actually be able to play as a midfielder ? And remember that this guy is 23 already. At this point, Barca is stalling his development rathan than promoting it.
A counter-example is Montoya. He didn't cut it under four(!) coaches while at Barca, but will now have a realistic fighting chance at Inter. The dos Santos brothers, unable to make it around these parts, played some fine football for Villarreal. Bojan and Muniesa found a place as well. And many many more will head in a similar direction. Naturally, every culé wants homegrown talent to succeed, but we should stay realistic when evaluating players. Samper is closest to the first team at the moment, followed by Grimaldo and Adama. I have severe doubts about the rest.
But all things considered, Samper at the time would only be able to take S. Roberto's spot on the bench. Adama only needs to take a glimpse at the first team sheet to know his place. Their future with this club will depend on how patient they are, but it will be their decision to make, just like it was Thiago's decision, or Fabregas decision years ago for that matter.
The fact that many alumni won't cut it in our first team doesn't take anything away from our youth system. One can take pride in the achievements of the club's youth system even if these players will only play elsewhere, especially since La Masia is meant to be a life school after all. All La Masia graduates are still developed to a degree where they can, at the very least, form the spine of any club smaller than Barca in La Liga. Which means that it's fulfilling it's purpose.
