Spanish Football thread

[StinkyBoHoon]

Guess I'm alone on this one, but what in the fish is wrong with signing a kid under the age of 18 from some obscure country and moving his family to Barcelona where he will live a life superior to that of anything his homeland could possibly offer, all the while playing a sport the kid loves and quite possibly developing into a great player?

To think that the way the regulations stand now that Messi would've ended up a 4 foot tall midget with probably a below par education and possibly not a whole lot of money instead of the greatest player in the world with a decent education and a fish ton of money is what gets me.
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because a) saying that they have great educational facilities means football would be playing into the hands of the entitled yet again. if that's the reason then barca and madrid could do it, but not sevilla or la coruna. authorities want to increase the competition not have rules that apply to everyone else except the mega-clubs because they have the money to set up elaborate youth academies. it would be completely unfair if it went unchecked.

b) "quite possibly be a great player" is being extremely optimistic, especially the way these signings were developing, barcelona have dozens of players in their youth teams and were there no restrictions madrid, man u, chelsea, city etc would be full of them as well. furthermore if you made the rules equal like you'd have to you'd be looking at 1000s of young players, especially coming from africa (where teenagers have already been exploited with promises of foreign football) and you'd be looking at a system that more often than not, takes players out of their country, makes them focus on football until they're 18 or 19, then dumps them out into life.

c) why do you think his life would be so superior? it's not like south korea, where some of these players are from, is a poor country (in fact, it's economy is in vastly better shape than spain's) obviously the same applies to america. if they are signed to football clubs they would already have preferential treatment regarding their development anyway, so why not instead of having clubs poach them when they're 13 they have to wait until they're 18 and can make more informed decisions? you make it sound like the choice these kids had thwas moving to barcelona or playing on the streets in the dirt. if messi hadn't come to barcelona he would have been playing for an argentine team, if he'd ended up there it would have been through the path neymar took. of course barcelona don't like this, it's far cheaper to sign 200 brazilian 15 year olds than it is to sign the next neymar (which is why they tried to avoid paying tax on him) and then tell the 199 that didn't make it to sod off at the end of the process.

 

[Epic]

because a) saying that they have great educational facilities means football would be playing into the hands of the entitled yet again. if that's the reason then barca and madrid could do it, but not sevilla or la coruna. authorities want to increase the competition not have rules that apply to everyone else except the mega-clubs because they have the money to set up elaborate youth academies. it would be completely unfair if it went unchecked.

Why the double standard then, why not start applying something similar on the senior level transfer market as well? So you know, so Sevilla and La Coruna can compete, oh yeah, we don't give a single fish about that.

b) "quite possibly be a great player" is being extremely optimistic, especially the way these signings were developing, barcelona have dozens of players in their youth teams and were there no restrictions madrid, man u, chelsea, city etc would be full of them as well. furthermore if you made the rules equal like you'd have to you'd be looking at 1000s of young players, especially coming from africa (where teenagers have already been exploited with promises of foreign football) and you'd be looking at a system that more often than not, takes players out of their country, makes them focus on football until they're 18 or 19, then dumps them out into life.

I just don't see what's wrong with that if the players are looked after well, what do you think happens to 1000s of young players that fail at La Masia that are Spanish? Dumped out into life after they're 18 or 19.

c) why do you think his life would be so superior? it's not like south korea, where some of these players are from, is a poor country (in fact, it's economy is in vastly better shape than spain's) obviously the same applies to america. if they are signed to football clubs they would already have preferential treatment regarding their development anyway, so why not instead of having clubs poach them when they're 13 they have to wait until they're 18 and can make more informed decisions? you make it sound like the choice these kids had thwas moving to barcelona or playing on the streets in the dirt. if messi hadn't come to barcelona he would have been playing for an argentine team, if he'd ended up there it would have been through the path neymar took. of course barcelona don't like this, it's far cheaper to sign 200 brazilian 15 year olds than it is to sign the next neymar (which is why they tried to avoid paying tax on him) and then tell the 199 that didn't make it to sod off at the end of the process.

In my scenario where the player comes from an obscure country life would be superior, but for argument sake let's use the South Korean players, do you think there's a higher chance of them developing into better players at La Masia or at one of their local academies? I think the answer is fairly obvious there. The difference of a player being poached at 18 and 13 is quite drastic, those 5 years are quite fundamental to a players' development and if Barca or whoever else spots something in a player at 13, they can mold the player easily to anyway they choose to, not saying the same thing can't be done to a 18 year old, but it is easier. I'm sorry, but you're dead wrong on Messi, developing in Argentina, neither his family nor his club would've been able to get him the medical treatment necessary to overcome his growth deficiency. Again, what do you think happens to the 199/200 Spanish La Masia youth that don't end up a Xavi or an Iniesta? Sod off at the end of the process.

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If the problem truly is player trafficking, then this is not the way to go about it, it just screams lazy work to me, FIFA (with the help of the respective FAs) doesn't want to go around investigating each and every club on each and every foreign youth transfer, so they slap on regulations stopping anyone and everyone from developing foreign youth players... why Barca didn't fight this in 2009 or whenever these regulations were written in is just truly beyond me.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

Why the double standard then, why not start applying something similar on the senior level transfer market as well? So you know, so Sevilla and La Coruna can compete, oh yeah, we don't give a single fish about that.

how is it a double standard? the reason youth transfers should be disallowed is so smaller teams can protect their investment in talent and get fair rewards. football will always favour the rich but at least the rich should have to cough up ?30m to do so instead of poaching kids for free. anyway, i also would love to see the financial fair play rules properly and fairly enforced to create a more even playing field. don't have a clue why you're calling this a double standard, a youth movement rule does not compromise fairness in the senior transfer market.

I just don't see what's wrong with that if the players are looked after well, what do you think happens to 1000s of young players that fail at La Masia that are Spanish? Dumped out into life after they're 18 or 19.

it would probably be impossibe for a team to have such a high turnover of players if restricted to their own back yard so worrying about 1000s wouldn't be a problem. there is no problem with a spanish kid with some talent trying to make it at football in spain, there would be problems if billion dollar teams can hoover up every resource in the world.

for a worst case scenario a tottenham youth player spent the years after being dropped in depression with no support and recently killed himself in october.

In my scenario where the player comes from an obscure country life would be superior, but for argument sake let's use the South Korean players, do you think there's a higher chance of them developing into better players at La Masia or at one of their local academies? I think the answer is fairly obvious there. The difference of a player being poached at 18 and 13 is quite drastic, those 5 years are quite fundamental to a players' development and if Barca or whoever else spots something in a player at 13, they can mold the player easily to anyway they choose to, not saying the same thing can't be done to a 18 year old, but it is easier. I'm sorry, but you're dead wrong on Messi, developing in Argentina, neither his family nor his club would've been able to get him the medical treatment necessary to overcome his growth deficiency. Again, what do you think happens to the 199/200 Spanish La Masia youth that don't end up a Xavi or an Iniesta? Sod off at the end of the process.

i don't think there's noticeably less chance of him becoming a footballer. in england how many world class youth players do they actually produce? this is the wealthiest club scene in the world, with several clubs having vast youth academies, how come argentina can produce an endless line of world class players over the last 40 years whereas england have failed to develop more than a handful. how come all messi's direct competitors for the ballon d'or this year played at the club they were born near until they were 18? (ronaldo at sporting until he was 18, ribery was at Boulogne until he was 19, zlatan was still at malmo when he was 19)

the fact is la maisa and messi are anomalies, yes they are very succesful and the incident of messi having to go elsewhere to get medical treatment ended up being a huge positive advert for this sort of thing but it's a complete one off that you can't build an entire law around. la maisa may be a well run facility you can't have a law that says "no one can do this except barcelona." as that is blatantly unfair. obviousy such a law is what barcelona thought their should be though.

 

[War]

Catalan catastrophe | News | Revista de la Liga | Sky Sports


However fellow Revista guest Graham Hunter believes Barca will ultimately be able to enter the transfer market this summer.

He pointed to FIFA's failure to inform Barca until this month of a decision that was taken in November, which meant the Spanish club made ill-informed calls over future buying and selling.

Hunter suggested that a Barcelona appeal could delay the implementation of the ban until after the upcoming transfer window.

"The fact that FIFA have made evidence to Barcelona that they made this decision in November and waited four crucial months, when not just buying or youth development but selling and multi-million pound decisions were being taken... Barcelona will use that to their advantage," he said.

"And I suspect that whatever happens, including an appeal, that this summer they will eventually be able to sign."

 

[War]

Barca's season continues to take a nose dive & Bale continues to make me wish he was English & Wales didn't have a national team ha..

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

just saw that, holy cow, talk about putting on the after-burners. he gave Bartra about a 10 yard head start to that ball and still caught it.

he's never worth the money but there's still no denying he's a bloody fantastic player.

 

[ParkedTheBus]

Wow , as much as I hate to say this , Barca's defence has been abysmal. Mascherano is not a CB for heaven's sake. Bartra should have been given play time earlier in the season. We need a proper CB like Benatia or Hummels, though Hummels has not enjoyed the best of form this season.. Who knows , we might pull a surprise by signing Eder Alvarez Balanta. Watch out for that kid , serious potential. Even our midfield needs new additions.. Song is not of our class and Xavi and Iniesta are not getting younger.. We need someone like Kroos.. Someone who is young and passes the ball well..

 

[ste_mc_efc]

John Stones would be perfect for barcelona

 

[Haarithan]

He's blatantly better than any of their CBs at the moment.

 

[ParkedTheBus]

John Stones would be perfect for barcelona

True , a lot of potential , but he may suffer playing for a top , top club like Barca this early in his career.. We need a player who is a top player for a top club cause playing for Everton is different from playing from Barca.. Fighting for the 4th place is different from fighting for the 1st place AND the UCL... The same applies for Eder Alvarez Balanta as well.. I'd love to see Hummels or Thiago Silva , but I don't see BVB or PSG selling them , which makes Benatia the best option.

 

[War]

True , a lot of potential , but he may suffer playing for a top , top club like Barca this early in his career.. We need a player who is a top player for a top club cause playing for Everton is different from playing from Barca.. Fighting for the 4th place is different from fighting for the 1st place AND the UCL... The same applies for Eder Alvarez Balanta as well.. I'd love to see Hummels or Thiago Silva , but I don't see BVB or PSG selling them , which makes Benatia the best option.

Fair shout on him, easily the best African defender in the world game.

 

[Haarithan]

RIP Tito Villanova

 

[Epic]

Source? Last update I read he was stable after the emergency surgery...

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News is breaking everywhere now, truly sad, R.I.P. Tito.

 

[SambarVadai]

Its truly sad..What a brilliant manager he was.

RIP Tito..may your soul rest in peace

 

[thedon5]

RIP .