I was really worried when I first saw this news, hope that it's settled and that he stays. Dunno if it's a coincidence that he was near an exit right after Garcia left, but it'd be speculative to assume that there's a link.
As for the situation with La Masia, it's clear there's an issue. Grimaldo himself said that it's hard to get chances and that players can get discouraged. Bellerin said something along the same lines. Garcia supposedly left because of issues with Pep Segura. Either the administrators or the youth model as a whole is having problems and it can't be denied. It doesn't have to be players leaving at 16/17 like Cesc did to start a bad trend. Thiago left due to a lack of chances, Grimaldo as well. Same reasons, different age.
Young talents aren't even sacrificed for proper upgrading, instead only to bring in mediocre players. Sandro could've fulfilled Paco's role, Samper could've filled in for Gomes, and Grimaldo for Digne (though I do like the Frenchman and think he has a lot left to give). I'm willing to bet all of them would've performed as well or better than their counterparts as well. That's a lot of money spent unnecessarily on players that we didn't need, on top of the other load of money spent on other shit players like Arda, Mathieu, Vermaelen, Douglas. It's a lie to suggest that young players at Barca get a fair amount of trust. So much is made about whether or not they're 'good enough' while transferred players have free reign to be as bad as they want. For example, Gomes this season had far more minutes than Thiago did in 12/13 despite consistently playing at an extremely low level. Not a 1:1 comparison as the situations are a bit different, but it's clear to see how Gomes was given far more trust than he ever deserved.
I also think it's unfair to discount the players that left for the same reason but ended up as poor players. Toral, Bellerin, Icardi, and the host of other players that left are questionable or worse in their actual abilities. However, you
cannot assume that of the players prior to them getting their chances. Every player that shines at youth levels should get fair chances at the next stage and the fact that they end up as shit doesn't justify ignoring them, as we don't know with the next talent whether they'll end up as a win or a bust. Palencia at the moment has received that type of unfair treatment, though I think/hope it'll improve for him under Valverde. I'd say Munir and Deulofeu are examples of players that were given chances and then rightfully sold. Munir's game simply wasn't at the level required and Deulofeu is a hopelessly lost cause (yet Barca want him back now
).
There'll always be players that leave out of their own desire without feeling any undue difficulties at Barca. Cases like Sanabria and Mboula, for example, can't be attributed to any failures on Barca's part. However, there are a number of examples of players who left in preventable situations that we should've handled better. Too many to just say that everything's okay.