World Soccer - UK (2020-03)

SPECIAL FEATURE

5

BARCELONA RELEASE

THE YOUNGSTERS

Barcelona president Josep Maria

Bartomeu and technical director Eric

Abidal stand accused of a string of

January transfer-window crimes: no over-arching

plan, crass errors of communication, short-

sightedness and scant concern for the club’s

time-honoured identity as a youth development

hot spot.

Rather than plugging the glaring gaps in their

squad, Barca instead chose to concentrate on

loaning out a string of good quality

youngsters, with the list including

playmaker Carles Alena (Real Betis),

winger Carles Perez (Roma), centre-

forward Abel Ruiz (Braga), French

centre-back Jean-Clair Todibo

(Schalke) and Senegalese full-back

Moussa Wague (Nice).

This cull of the fledglings has not

proved popular, with fans annoyed

at what they regard as self-inflicted

damage to the Blaugrana identity.

Barca supporters fear that the club’s

much-admired La Masia academy is

being marginalised.

Not so long ago, La Masia graduates

used to have a purely sporting role,

deployed in the first-team to supplement the

ranks of the imported stars. Those days, though,

appear to be ebbing away, with kids offloaded to

raise the funds for more big signings.

Supporters especially took exception to the

departures of Alena and Perez, both of whom

grew up at La Masia, totalling 22 years at Camp

Nou between them.

Despite showing much promise and winning

Spanish under-21 caps, Alena effectively was

frozen out in the first half of this season, not

making a single appearance from August to

December. Naturally, he was keen to move on for

regular first-team football and in January agreed

a six-month loan deal with Betis. While his

temporary employers have no option to buy, it

cannot be assumed that he will fly back to the

nest in the summer.

The decision to allow Perez to leave for Roma

• initially on loan, with a definitive €11m transfer
  to follow at the end of the season - was also
  somewhat surprising. Although by no means a
  regular, the 21-year-old certainly made an
  impact in the pre-Christmas period, scoring his
  first goal for Barca in a 5-2 thrashing
  of Real Betis in August, racking up a
  number of assists in La Liga and
  opening his Champions League
  goalscoring account in the 2-1
  win at Internazionale.
  Barca will claim they are merely
  engaged in a squad spring clean
  
  
  • but could this be more a case
    of economic necessity? In the club’s
    current financial model, balancing the
    books is paramount and, if recent
    reports are to be believed, Barcelona
    need to raise around €100m before
    the end of June.
    More difficult HR decisions could
    be in the pipeline.
  
  
  
  

Braga posting

...Abel Ruiz

Germany calling...

Jean-Clair Todibo

Surprise...Carles Perez

Familiar...Carles Alena

(in green) taking on his

parent club for Betis

French coast...

Moussa Wague