What's your perspective on Deco, and his takeover from Alemany?
A short over simplistic answer is that his hands are tied and it is still hard to judge, signs are mixed but I would say he is solid.
A full answer is more complicated than this.
For me, it starts with
what is the role of SD? and how we judge it?
For most fans, SD is some guy sitting on his desk, watches games, and then decide who we sign, and go negotiate deals. This could be true in local clubs, but I don't see it true in Barca.
For me, his job comes from the title "Director", he is simply
head of a department. He handles scouting team, data team, negotiators (for most part, those were separate, I will come to this later), coaches and a full team in his disposal. He himself doesn't need to be a genius, but bring the right guys and knows when and how to weigh in.
Then how do you judge a SD? Is it based on ideas? or execution? For me one of the worst things in football is the "judge based on his ideas" trend. It is essentially supporting someone because he does things I like, or vice versa, rather than being fairly result oriented. Whether a coach or SD, it is usually the best way to get the worst takes.
It has a lot of bias and basically no consistent way of judging someone. This is a key in the Deco discussion.
So, now, back to Deco
The first part is the "
takeover" from Alemany.
When Deco arrived, our Football department was essentially ran by 3 guys: Xavi, who was essentially the boss, Crujif who was more of a part time SD, and Alemany who was the SD, but he is a lawyer and executive. This was unorthodox to Barca. Who usually had a football guy as SD (Txiki/Zubi/Fernandez/Abidal/Planas) and usually he is the main guy, a business guy (Sanllehi, Alemany, there was another guy under Bartou that his name escaped me) while the coach being a coach. Txiki for example was pretty vocal that he decides signings and not the coach.
Xavi came and made the football section his, essentially. A trend in football, as now you see someone like Amorim talking publicly about him being the one deciding who comes and goes. Deco didn't want this, he made a clear hierarchy that starts with him. This is probably why Alemany didn't want to stay, because he would have been support to Deco on the business side. While being a 15 years senior to him (age wise, and more as executive) ego probably played a part.
So, Deco cleared that, and probably it wasn't to Xavi pleasure.
The hiring from Laporta, was futuristic move IMO, I laugh hard when someone complains he is an agent!! Look at the NBA, agents are the best General Managers now. Agents literally does everything an SD does but from the other side of the table, hell, a lot of times they are used to do it from the same side as clubs uses them as mediators.
Now, regarding his
work:
Deco saw what we all saw, our fitness level and injuries are bad, he changed the training staff, shopped for the best in Spain. People wants to give the credit to Flick but it was Deco's work. Him favouring Flick over Xavi staying was the right call, despite Laporta's hesitation.
He opened new markets for us, instead of just ties with super agents like Zahavi and Mendes, he connected with an up and coming agent like Andy Bara, who is still small but has good eye for talent, now we are his biggest client and we benefit from it, unlike Zahavi and Mendes who have other priorities.
He looked at emerging talents who are on the cusp of breaking out, like Roque, Bergvall & Arda. Finances made the last 2 impossible (unless you are naive enough to use the term closing the deal" and Roque was an absolute bust. The idea behind Roque signing was understandable, but it was still a bad deal.
Those ideas are encouraging, but as I said earlier, I can't give credit for just ideas. The "I've almost signed X or Y" doesn't work for me.
The B team signings like, Faye Pau and Martin are solid.
Now, back to the part that fans cares about,
first team deals, beside Roque, he got Cancelo and Felix on loan, Olmo,Tek, Joan Garcia, Roony and Rashford on loan.
He loaned out the likes of Eric, Valle and Torre. He sold Roque, Torre & Pau Victor, along some good B team sales like Dom, Noah along Faye, Unai & Julian Araujo. Generating over 82.7M from sales so far (according to wikipedia).
Only Roque classifies as bad signing, IMHO. Cancelo and Felix were good deals for a cheap loan, Tek was good deal. This year deals are tbd. Roony looks promising and Rashford is logical deal, Joan is the make or break of the window, he is a one season wonder who can take the next step or go back to the mean.
Olmo wasn't ideal due to his health, but we negotiated fairly good terms IMO, more importantly he is a direct request by the coach, and we needed a player like that to make 4231 works and pushing Pedri deeper. Nico was first choice to push Raphinha to AM, but with him out Olmo was the only viable choice to compete with Fermin.
So, solid 7/10 regarding transfers for me, the sales part has improved, despite fans never getting satisfied with it. Loan deals are more purposeful than before, although this season will be more telling with more B team players getting loaned, new transfers are joining with clear ideas for why they are coming, with realistic approach, but no "genius" move so far. Ideas are right, but I don't award points for it.
