2024-04-29 05:46:52
In conditions of financial troubles, La Masia is able to help the club out.
İdman.biz presents an article with a link to soccer.ru.
Lately, conversations about Barcelona most often come down to discussing its financial problems and the attempts of the club’s management to solve them. From time to time, rumors appear that the Catalans are interested in someone. Then there are counter-gossips that they won’t be able to buy anyone from them due to budget restrictions. But Barcelona, perhaps less than other clubs that find themselves in a similar story, should worry about their future. After all, it has one of the best football academies in the world. And it is with her work that the glorious periods of the club’s history in recent decades are associated.
Heyday
When Pep Guardiola took charge of Barcelona, he immediately embraced the club’s academy as its main source of human resources. The squad already included Lionel Messi, Carles Puyol, Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Victor Valdes. Guardiola, who himself came from La Masia, brought Sergio Busquets, Thiago Alcantara into the first team, and brought back Gerard Pique.
Already in 2009, the coach had a team on the field, assembled mainly from academy graduates. She also formed the basis of the Spanish national team, which dominated in those years. And five La Masia graduates played in almost every match. Barcelona at that time represented perhaps the best team in the world, and its football was the fruit of the work of the academy.
Dark years
A lot changed when Josep Bartomeu took over at Barcelona in 2014. The new president, who worked under Joan Laporta in the 2000s, decided not to stick to the previous approach. He increasingly looked to the foreign market. His management was ultimately characterized not only by poor management of the club’s finances, but also by a wasteful transfer policy that often failed to take youth into account.
During his reign, of course, there were some successful purchases. You can remember Luis Suarez and Ivan Rakitic. But there were also catastrophic decisions. Here they remember Ousmane Dembele, Antoine Griezmann, Philippe Coutinho, Malcolm and others. At the same time, the club lost Neymar and allowed Luis Enrique to leave.
And they forgot about La Masia. They stopped paying attention to it as a source of players for the main team. Although then Sergi Roberto managed to get into it. In general, the academy was in decline. And without attracting new talent from it, Barcelona continued to increase its expenses. In 2021, its most famous student, Lionel Messi, left the team.
Looking for a star
In general, Messi’s status in some way prevented the adequate perception of the talents trained by La Masia. The media, experts, coaches, fans continually searched in the depths of the academy for someone who could be called the “new Messi”. And they called someone that, rushing to make assessments. Such “new Messis” appeared at some point almost every month.
They included Boyan Krkic, who quickly faded away. Then there were Giovanni dos Santos, Riqui Puig. The promising career of Gerard Deulofeu also went awry. Take Kubo was a great talent, but he was lost to the Real Madrid system, and Javi Simons to the PSG system. As soon as anyone was even slightly associated with Messi, it became his curse and his Barcelona career evaporated.
Back to the roots
The figure of Ronald Koeman, who coached Barcelona for a short time, can be treated differently. He did not really achieve success with the team, he quarreled with Joan Laporta, who returned to the post of president, and the Catalans showed a mediocre game under him. In general, there are more negative stories related to his coaching work. But there are also positive aspects.
In conditions of financial constraints, Koeman was forced to turn to the academy, establishing cooperation with La Masia, from where young football players were regularly recruited to join the team. He made Ansu Fati an important part of the team, helped Gavi make his Barcelona debut and also trusted Pedri.
Xavi only continued this work, which was probably to be expected from a La Masia graduate, as Guardiola was in his time. Without enough money to strengthen, Barcelona had to get creative at the hands of Xavi. Gavi, Pedri, Ansu and Alejandro Balde became important figures in the team, other young guys were no longer desperately waiting for their chance, as it was before.
And this season, which will be Xavi’s last in Barcelona, the focus on youth is even more obvious. Lamin Yamal has established himself as one of the most promising talents in world football. And the public has even stopped constantly making comparisons with Messi. Fermin Lopez is also on the rise, and Pau Kubarsi looks more than confident in the center of defense, despite his young age.
In total, Xavi allowed 15 La Masia players to make their debut in the Barcelona main team. An incredible figure. Perhaps, however, his style does not reflect the notorious “Barcelona DNA” that was much talked about when Xavi was appointed. But it is important that Xavi was able to return the club’s bet on La Masia and show that if you believe in the guys, you can extract diamonds from there and make diamonds out of them on a regular basis, and put this business on stream.
Problems of the future
But Barcelona has many challenges ahead that will require tough decisions. Still, it’s great to enjoy the success of young people, how they fit into the team and reach heights. But such a club needs trophies, titles, which is always associated with additional income, vital to fuel the huge colossus of Barcelona.
Real Madrid is not asleep against this background. He already has a powerful position, but ahead of Madrid there will be reinforcements in the form of Kylian Mbappe, Endrick, and there is interest in Alphonso Davies from Bayern. Barcelona can only look at such opportunities with envy and lick their lips. Despite all the talent of the young men from La Masia, it takes time for them to become world stars. And also the correct approach of the coach.
This is an additional problem. After all, Xavi announced his departure from the team. Rumor has it that the Barcelona management is not losing hope of keeping the specialist. But if it doesn’t work out, then you will have to rely on a coach who will continue to rely on La Masia and will not disrupt the flow of talent from it to the base. With such an academy, Barcelona will definitely not sink under any circumstances. But taking off requires additional effort.
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