Barcelona, a club once praised for its unique methods on and off the field has recently descended into a crisis riddled with corruption and wasteful transfer policies. More so, for a club that produced Blaugranas’ golden era, La Masia was held up as the metered-standard in talent development and scouting.
This was the result of a unique blend of La Masia values, a well-defined philosophy, talent nurturing, and pedagogical know-how that bore its fruit in one of the most balanced teams in Europe to five leagues in terms of talents, values, performance, and results.
When one thinks of the Spanish team, Barcelona team, and Real Madrid you the think of the modern-day gladiators who took the world by surprise, and a team whose style is solidly built upon a great foundation of tiki-taka and a direct free-flowing football, but ironically the style wasn’t as fancy in the ’80s compared to what it is now which has brought about a lot of success on the international stage, for both the national team and the elite club sides in Spanish football.
Have you ever sit down and wonder why Barcelona, one the biggest club side in Spain makes stupid and unnecessary transfer decisions? For a club who are known for signing top-notch football stars, now settles for relatively average and unneeded players that haven’t helped in pushing the club forward success wise.
Gone are the days where the unveiling of a world-class, top-notch, and fantastic players were been witnessed in front of adoring Nou Camp faithful since the inception of the club in 1899, by a certain Swiss Businessman Hans-Max Gamper who brought glamour and pride to the city of Barcelona.
But unfortunately, Barcelona a club known for its success stories, and a well-organized institution with 22 La Liga titles, 26 Copa Del Rey titles, one European Cup, and three UEFA Champions League triumphs. And at some point, some of their players were the one dominating the FIFA World Player of the at FIFA gala event, is now known for its failure in the transfer market where they signed players they necessarily don’t need, perhaps their success has conveniently swept and clouded their incompetence in their transfer dealings.
The Blaugrana’s transfer mishap started afresh when Neymar left for Paris Saint Germain, though that doesn’t mean they do not make signings that have really worked perfectly in the past and the ones that failed to blend into the team perfectly. Now, things have really deteriorated as their obsession in replacing the Brazilian forward has made the management to keep making the same mistakes over and over again in trying to replace Neymar, and as such, they’ve ended up signing wrong players that don’t even fit well into their style of play and philosophy.
When Neymar left, it was evident that the Catalan attack will need another player that will feel the vacant post, as such they brought in Gerd Deulofeu a former La Masia product. When he joined, he played a couple of games with decent performances for the Catalan giant, and they thought he’s going to be that man they needed, but unfortunately, he failed to deliver after much expectation.
Despite Deulofeu’s failed experiment, the management kept more emphasis on signing attacking players which brought to fore their obsession in replacing players who are gone even when they don’t fit in the starting eleven and having enjoyed few decades of rich success in signings that has produced success for the team. But now the management seems not to care and they seem so relaxed in determining if player X or Y will be right for the team.
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For Barca faithful who wonders and cherishes the well known “La Masia” academy, it’s somewhat pitiful and upsetting that the club who don the motto “Mes qué un club” is presently in the irresistible prevailing fashion of signing unwanted players instead of sustaining and ingraining self-belief and ambitions in the heart and psyche of the La Masia academy.
Barcelona’s Mismanagement
As it stands, it’s looking like what the Barcelona management does is to just sign a player then hope that the player would come good, particularly since the exit of Neymar they’ve in one way or the other adopted that kind of strategy which hasn’t been working for them, case in point was the signing of Kevin Prince Boateng, which was just a waste of resources if I must say.
If Sid Lowe’s statement on Joan Gaspart a former Barcelona President, the successor to Josep Lluis Nunez in 1999 or thereabout were anything to go by that “Gaspart has built a horribly imbalanced squad with 73 creative and not so creative midfielders but only one decent defender, Puyol” then it can also be said that Sandro Rosell and Josep Bartomeo the former and current Catalan President has also built a horribly imbalanced team with only Messi and few other players who are head and shoulder above their colleagues in the team.
Without mincing word, it has been five years or thereabout since Barcelona last won a champion league or tasted success in Europe, then the question you would ask yourself is why has it take so long for Barcelona to lay their hands on the prestigious continental title again? The answer is quite simple, it’s because they have a depleted team that lacks great players just like the team that won it in 2015.
More so, some of those players ain’t that swashbuckling like they were before, case in point Ivan Rakitic who hasn’t find playing time easy to come by, Jordi Alba is not as ferocious on the left backline as before due to a niggling injury, Luis Suarez a very fantastic striker, but then the Uruguayan forward isn’t getting any younger anymore, and of course since Xavi and Iniesta left the team, over 28 players have been signed since they won the champions league and few have really worked perfectly for Barcelona.
With the situation the Catalan giant is in now, we can easily conclude that they failed to build on their champion league success especially the one they won in 2015, however in their quest to build the team to lunch an assault on the champion league once again they’ve failed. Almost 70 percent of the players haven’t worked out.
In 2015, former Atletico Madrid midfielder Arda Turan was signed by Barcelona, but then in hindsight, the Calatan giant should have foreseen that Turan wouldn’t work at the club when he categorically stated he joined the team because he wanted to “Run Less” which to me was an insult to his former team the ‘Rojiblancos‘ because the team is synonymous with running and power play.
However who am I to question their decision, he came with a lot of promise and he was expected to be the successor to Iniesta, though he performed a bit in his second year as a winger. Unfortunately, the following year he was a disaster and he failed to live up to expectation.
Having done impressively well for Sevilla in their Europa League triumph in 2014-15 season, Aleix Vidal joined Barcelona to succeed Dani Alves, as such he willingly spent six months doing nothing for the team as Barcelona went through their last stage of registration ban, so sad for the Spaniard he couldn’t really get back to the blistering form we saw him with at Sevilla, but then we can’t take away the fact that he got injured, perhaps that hindered him from performing. However, in proper assessment, Vidal was a failed project.
Also in 2016, Barcelona’s obsession in trying to replace some of their players who left kept growing, as such their second attempt in replacing Iniesta was another player Denis Suarez which I term, ‘Money Miss Road‘ though the Spaniard tried to be useful to the side in his short stint, in all honesty, he failed to develop the skill set needed to triumph in a very demanding Barcelona midfield and as such failed to replaced Iniesta.
Another player was also signed during that period, and his name is a certain Frenchman Lucas Digne, he was brought in to be a back up for Alba, with the kind of form the Spaniard did show, it is safe to say Digne would struggle to usurp him, and truly he couldn’t replicate or upsurge Alba and he was loan out and in the end, he eventually joined Everton outrightly and Barcelona transfer failure continues.
Another fail transfer is a certain young Brazilian Marlon, he was touted to be the one to replace Gerard Pique, but unfortunately for him, he couldn’t shoulder that load of replacing Pique and he was loaned to Nice or thereabout, and since then the Brazilian has been out of mind and out of sight.
The Portuguese Andrea Gomez, is another player that comes to mind, no doubt he had a fantastic stint with Valencia and at some point, he was touted to join Real Madrid, but in the end, the Portuguese joined the Catalan giant with a lot of expectations, but the pressure for playing for Barcelona took a very huge toll on him and he failed to live up to expectations for the Catalan. He found his way down to Everton, a team with a lesser pressure compare to Barcelona.
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Paco Alcacer, an orthodox forward for a decidedly unorthodox position as the case may be at Barcelona, he was brought in as a back up for Luis Suarez. Unfortunately, he didn’t work out and he struggled at Barcelona, though some may say he didn’t have much opportunity to show what he could offer, he finds it hard to secure the first-team shirt and as such he was loaned to Dortmund before he finally joined Villarreal.
With all of the silly transfers, sometimes one would wonder who is the brain behind Barcelona’s recent transfers, as such, it doesn’t look like the club’s management has learned their lesson. Also if we’re to consider the kind of deal they want to involve themselves in again, with their proposal in trading a young Arthur Melo for an old man in Miralem Pjanic which looks like a deal that won’t make a great deal for the Catalan giant if the deal eventually pulls through.
Another Barcelona transfer target in the upcoming window also include Neymar, who has always been their main target, but the financial situation of the club means they have to swap player for player in other to balance the book, so in other words, it would be very complicated to bring back the Brazilian to the Nou Camp, but then it’s a transfer that could still happen as the player himself has never ruled out a return to Barcelona.
Meanwhile, reports have shown that the priority of the Barcelona management is to get Lautaro Martinez who should be a perfect replacement for Luis Suarez. Hopefully, they would get this particular one right this time, and if they fail then their woe continues in signing unwanted players that wouldn’t fit well with the style and philosophy of the club.
If Barca proceeds with the silly transfer pattern, which stems particularly from self-uncertainty and instability in the club’s management, then the celebrated and distinguished FC Barcelona’s decline is close by.
