And what about the era when Pique and Fabregas left for Man utd and Arsenal? English clubs were still rich then but yeah I thought money is more used now than then. Just curious.
They offered more money too at that time, more importantly it was a forward move for them for bigger clubs, we were mess and a team on decline while those two were the greatest non Italian clubs beside RM.
When Cesc moved it was election time, the club interim board wasn't authorized to make negotiations IIRC and he was argued to wait for elected president and rejected. Pique was more curious case as the club ended the season on a high note and he was 17 so club had a year to make offer, but board had more pressing things in cleaning the house back then and Laporta openly talked about the incident ,Pique was the last player that left under Laporta's era that made it in European football although EPL clubs was still able to take dozen of youth players from us at the age of 16 with more money and false promises of 1st team football. Pacheco and Merida comes to mind.
Ok some here says the fact: English clubs can give them more thab what Barca can. But what about teams like Dortmund and Monaco? Pretty sure they are not that rich. Players like Gomez and Mboula left to join them and sometimes I believe it's because of the sporting project. I mean this is not two english club that is paying for youth players.
As I said before it is about selections. a club can target 1 player to overpay, but for us with many clubs going after our kids it will be half dozen every year.
Also the other two has youth project that they can make case they have easier route to 1st team therefor easier route for stardom. Mboula will se Mpabbe and he will be like "I am brought to be the next Mpabbe" while Gomes has seen Dembele and young squad in BVB.
They will see this clubs as good starting point as better option from trying to start from the top in club like Barca
You can call it idealism if you want. I'm just against paying big money to 16-17 year old kids who have shown nothing to deserve that. Kids who prioritize money at that age also rarely make it at the big stage. Sure, we'll lose some talents but I would rather keep those who actually wants to succeed at Barça if they will reject (probably financially better) offers from other clubs than trying to keep someone who is not totally commited to the club by offering him more money.
Agree with overall statements but few notes:
Club sold Icardi, he didn't leave like the others, we didn't believe he will make it here and prefered the money and tbh it was the right decision. he is bad fit here in every sense of the word
Alba left because he didn't have the chance here, he had the most important part of his youth development in Valancia, where they trusted him more and then converted him to LB rather than winger. he wasn't a player the club wanted to keep that much. Those weren't players who we could persuaded by money, they were player who would have never made it if stayed here and we decided to let go.
Gai didn't leave, he stayed although had a tour in England to see other offers, played under Pep in B team, got injured and stalled and club refused to renew his contract when he was 19 so he moved to City He is example of the other side of the story, that turning easy money could mean you lose it all.
You can Busquets to Pedro and Roberto, although he was promoted at young age and had his father to help him make decisions but he had Crosas ahead of him at some point and they were same age
