Oh man, people are going to be extremely disappointed when Xavi comes. Firstly he is too much of a possession fanatic. Pep had /has a degree of pragmatism. Xavi does not. Xavi was saying we were the better side against Bayern despite us being walloped 0-7.
Secondly back in the day talent pool was better and more affordable. Guys like Eto and Ronaldinho were actually affordable back then. Nowadays we want to pay 100 million for a shitty to mediocre striker like Lautaro! ��
La Masia is not producing and young talent costs a pretty penny too.
Also to play Cruyff /Pep like football you need talented players with excellent technique, intelligence and willingness to work.
We need a manager who is pragmatic and can develop some youth while securing some decent results.
He was a possession fanatic as a player maybe, but the only real quote that gets used against him in that argument is after the 7-0 drubbing by Bayern where I expect pride got in the way too.
It's hard to say if La Masia is not producing because we've gone the way of buying players instead of having patience to nurture them to the first team. Xavi played for 5 years at Barca with just one La Liga trophy in his first 5 years, not a chance the modern day fan will tolerate that. You just have to read the meltdown people have if someone has one poor game here, they're written off.
I mean of course you will still need to buy players and combine them with homegrown talent, as the chances of a first XI being competitive from one academy is very minimal. However, we've gone the way of paying way over the odds for players without any thought of how they'd fit just look at the number of players we bought in 2016 onwards that are still here. In effect the talent pool is still there, but the club has been terrible at buying the right players at the correct prices. Any signing is a gamble to some extent, but this board has been woeful.
Going back to Xavi, I recently watched an interview with him (his English was perfect which I was unaware he even spoke it) where he said Barca were desperate for wingers e.g Gnabry, Sancho,Neymar, so he can even see that this side is lacking in this department. I just think he needs to be given a chance before he's completely written off based on his beliefs as a player and how he played his game personally.
