BBZ8800
Senior Member
You misunderstand me. Giving him the shirt would be almost certainly come with him actually being considered a player by our coach. It'd be pretty comical to see the player hand picked by Puyol to be the next #5 not being able to make the bench against Sporting Gijon.
Those are things that would get worked out by playing time. You're listing the flaws he has as a player but he never got the opportunity to fix those flaws. Granted, it's partly his fault for actually sticking around throughout all of this, so I don't exactly feel sorry for him.
So, what, we are back to: "he could have been awesome if we had more faith in him?"
Maybe, but highly unlikely.
Yes, players develop in their young age by getting minutes, but even with minutes some players end as bad/average or as good players.
For example, Bojan Krkic was given tons of time while he was young (in Barca).
But even though he had tons of potential, good years in youth teams and tons of time in Ateam, he never developed into a player for Barca's level.
Why?
= because he just wasn't good enough for our level (due to some of his weaknesses) even with all his natural talent and with minutes we (and other teams) later gave to him.
More recent examples, Adama or Sandro.
You can give them 2000 minutes per season in Ateam, they will surely improve to some extent, but 99% none of them will ever improve to a level that he will be good enough for our Ateam.
So, NO, Bartra's or anyone else's problem isn't a lack of playing time.
It is playing time+their natural peaks of talent/development.
Also, for Bartra and any other future player in the next 1000 years at Barca, all young players should be aware:
= at Barca, young players will in general (unless if you are young Messi) get less minutes than in midtable teams
-- so, YES, there are chances that your development at Barca will be weaker compared to your possible development if you played at Levante or Celta
But that is a risk (and honor) of playing at Barca.
It is hard to reach a first team, but when you do it=you are on top of the world.
But anyway, more or less any young player knows or should know the pros and cons of their development at Barca.
So, for the end, at some extent your answer is true, but ALL young players should have known that.
You KNOW that you won't get tons of minutes at Barca as a youngster.
And that your future career is in a huge risk because of that.
So, one day, if you fail to develop/reach a required Barca's level, imo then a reply how a player wasn't given enough of minutes is pretty stupid (not from you, but if a player would use that answer).
This is Barca.
We don't have too much time/options to develop young players.
If you take your chance right away=awesome.
If you don't take your chance right away=you will be given only a small number of chances after that.
Is that fair?=oh well, the world is a cruel place, I know...
On the other hand, Bartra, Sandro, Adama, it is extremely hard to tell whether they would develop into a much better players if they played/developed in Levante or Rayo.
Maybe they would have improved much better with more playing time.
But also, maybe they would turn into EQUALLY as good (or average) players as today in Barca.
Sometimes, players don't develop well ONLY because of too few opportunities.
Sometimes, players don't develop because they are just crap/average and they have reached their natural peaks.
Sometimes, it is a combination of both.
But using an answer that only a playing time is/was Bartra's or someone else's problem is not fair/objective either.
In this example, it still sounds as if people have tons of blind faith how Barta was an awesome talent and only a bad luck and playing minutes restricted him into turning into our future captain and into a Bartresi...
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