I disagree. We have one of the youngest teams amongst top clubs.
Average age of current squad (26 players, not including Rashford yet) is 25,8 but that includes Romeu who will surely leave and MATS who probably won't play for the club again. Don't think we can expect much other changes except maybe some of the youngsters being part of the first team which will ofc lower average age.
For comparision Madrid's average age is 25,3 but includes youngsters like Alvaro Rodriguez (reportedly close to leave), Reinier (don't have a future at the club either). Rodrygo and Endrick could leave as well so wouldn't be surprised if by the end of TW our squad would be younger on average.
Average ages of City, Liverpool and Arsenal squads are also similar to ours - around 26 years old. Ofc Chelsea with their hoarding of talents and a bloated squad of 44 players (unreal
) have by far the youngest team in the PL (23,3 years).
Bayern's average age is 25,4 years but includes 32 players, several of them youngsters who probably won't play for the first team next year.
PSG (25,1 years) are very well set with only Marquinhos over 30 years (Skriniar too but he's leaving) and Ruiz with 29 (won't turn 30 until April). And then players like Kolo Muani, Asensio, Soler, Renato Sanches will leave too which will lower overall age of the squad. So with their financial power they are here to stay now that they are finally run like a professional club. At least until Lucho won't want a new challenge (hopefully soon) and they might get another Galtier to hold them back.
In Serie A Inter has by far the oldest team (27,5) though they are bringing younger players now that Inzaghi left. Followed by Napoli and Juve. Milan's average age is similar to ours but they are in for a big rebuild so let's see where they'll stand in September.
But what I think is even more important is we have the right balance between
youngsters,
players in/entering their prime years and
veterans.
If we look at the projected XI
Garcia (24)*
Kounde (26) Cubarsi (18) Inigo (34) Balde (21)
FDJ (28) Pedri (22)
Raphi (28) Olmo (27) Yamal (18)
Lewa (36)
average age: 25,6
So five players in the 24-28 range, four U23 and two over 30 (though in their mid-thirties which is problematic).
*Could include Garcia in the youngsters rang too as still pretty inexperienced and GKs need longer time to develop but overall point is still valid.
Hopefully Araujo will get his shiet together this season and replace Inigo so we'll have one less thing to worry about.
Compare that to the first game (derby against Espanyol) when Xavi took over and we had three remaining amigos and four U20 starters.
MATS (29)
Mingueza (22) Pique (34) Eric (20) Alba (32)
Busi (33)
Nico (19) FDJ (24)
Gavi (17) Depay (27) Ilias (17)
average age: 24,9
While Xavi's team was younger overall current one is definitely better set for the future, also from the age perspective not just quality difference which is obvious.
As critical as I am to Laporta (for different reasons) it's clear the team has improved a lot over last four years.
It's obvious we have some needs but name me one team that doesn't. No team is perfect and that's why they are out there every transfer window trying to fill holes in their squads the best they can. Most of them at least, some (khm, Chelsea, khm) are seemingly just buying for the sake of buying. You can never have enough strikers or GKs I guess.
Even state owned teams who play in a different league to Barca (and really compared to all other clubs). PSG is looking to sign Zabarnyi for 70m and they've missed out on two young midfielders (who they probably saw as successor to Fabian). One is Mastantuono, the other kids name escaped me.
City has fallen apart without Rodri last year and they will have to replace KDB, maybe Ederson and soon other aging veterans too. But ofc opposite to us these clubs have unlimited resources and can fail with transfers without having much financial impact on them (see RKM and to a lesser extent - as he's still a rotation player for them - Goncalo Ramos at PSG). Barca in current state don't have that luxury.
There is also more demand for certain positions than actual quality on the market and you either have to overpay for someone (which we can't) or look at alternatives. Which often means taking a gamble on someone unproven which can backfire fast.
We can't do it the Chelsea way either - sign 6-8 talents for each position in the 20-30m range which gives you better (at least mathematically) odds one of them will be good enough long term while you sell others to re-invest again.
So we are doing the best we can under financial constraints that are not only a problem for Barca but for remaining 17 (or 16 if we exclude Bilbao who work under their own restrictions as well) La Liga teams too. For example newly promoted Sunderland has so far spend more on transfers than all LL teams except RM and AM combined. Barca is right now closer to Sevilla and Getafe than RM or AM when it comes to how Thebes is treating us. Hopefully that will change soon but we are waiting for that for years already.
In the meantime we are doing what we can. Free agents and loans while looking for cheap talents (but in the 0-5m range rather than 10 or 15m ones). From players like Abde (most consider him a La Masia player but he joined for 2m when he was almost 20), Torre, Darvich, Martin, Mbacke,.. to Roony and that Croatian kid (Chelfi? though don't think he has been officialy confirmed yet) as most recent examples.
Are they the best talents we could find (and were willing to sign for us) in that price range? Probably not. But what other top club has signed a 3-5m U21 player over the last three years that has turned out a starter or at least a valuable squad player for them? I don't remind any. Those type of players usually go to developing and selling clubs (Salzburg, Ajax,...) where they get enough time (something they would never be given here as can be seen from the Roque and several other examples) and then after a good season or two their price is multiplied by 4 or 5. But even those clubs don't always hit on all their targets. No club ever does.
So we know that most of these punts for the future mentioned above won't make it or stay in the first team long term but if we will get "lucky" and hit on another Pedri or Araujo it will be all worth it. And if we can make a 10m profit on them like we did with Faye I consider that a successful signing as well although first team won't directly benefit from that.
If Cardoso Varela is really "under control" and joining us when he turns 18 he could be the longterm Raphinha replacement for all we know. In that case all we need to do is keep Raphinha playing on a good enough level until he's 31/32 (with how fit and professional he is that's not impossible) to give the kid some more time to develop or look for a "bridge" LW until he's ready. Players like Rashy comes to play here. Or maybe some of the kids at the club wil make a required step up in coming two years. Not very likely but possible. But realistically you don't always have the long term solution at every position. We were looking for a RB for almost a decade until we found a converted CB who is doing well there (at least much better than players before him). I think every team has that weak spot where they just can't find the right player for a prolonged time but ofc as Barca fans we usually don't know about those other teams problems. We usually only see what they do well, especially if we struggle in that area.
As for the strikers they don't grow on trees. And again there is much more demand than supply. We live in the world where PSG reject like Ekitike cost 90m. He could turn out great for Liverpool but there is always a risk with attacking players from BuLi with inflated stats (and his are not really that great either). So what can we do? I guess we'll see next year. Probably won't be more quality options on the market but maybe less competition with Arsenal and Liverpool getting their strikers this summer. But Madrid could look for a #9 if they give up on the Vini-Mbappe experiment, PSG if they decide to not use Dembouz as false 9 anymore,... 12 months is a long time in football. And ofc we can always count on Chelsea to sign two new strikers even if JP will score 40 goals this season.
