Sunday ended the regular season in 2nd B Division. From this weekend we
will have the playoffs for promotion to 2nd A Division. Barca B will not be
there. And, when things have a bad starting, it’s normal to end badly.
The elections to the Presidency of Barça took two very significant
changes at the level of the sport structure that affects B team. On one hand,
García Pimienta, who had done all the planning together with Roura, found that,
overnight, they put Gerard Lopez above him, as 1st coach. On the other hand,
the sports organization changed: the club was splitted into 3 parts (4 with Women's
Football): Professional Football (1st team), Formative Professional Football
(Barça B, Juvenil A (U-19) and B (U-18)), and Amateur Formative Football
(Cadete A (U-16) to Prebenjamines (U-8)). The EscolesFCB are outside and are part
of Marketing Area (what do you want I say?).
Each of these parts has a Technical Secretary and still we have the Scouting
Area and the Methodology Area (which in principle are transverse)
Is this you see here above.
The first problem is that each Technical Secretary seems to do what he
wants. They call it Technical Secretary, but it seems rather a Technical
Director. That is, marking the lines to follow in terms of the way of working,
playing, etc. With all that it has as consequences. Roura does one thing, say
classic "model". Robert Fernandez is only for the first team, looking
for players around the world to enable keep winning, increasingly "as
is."
We have the Formative Professional Football. The Technical Secretary is
Pep Segura. They sold it as the intermediate step between
"grassroots" and "professional football" as it was neither
one nor the other. And indeed, when you're in no man's land, you end up not
knowing where you are and the results are what they are. Juveni B is the only
one, with one game to finish the league, can win. The Juvenil A has finished
4th at 19!! points behind the 1st, with no option to play the Champions
League (both, Spanish and European), or the Cup. And, the B...
Barca B. After the disappointing season 2014-15 where the team dropped
from 2ªA to 2ªB (although for some Directors that was not problematic or bad)
with coaching change in mid-season (Vinyals instead of Eusebio) and, speeches
here or there saying if players this or that (incidentally, quite players had
been in the Juvenil A with Vinyals, so if not adequate behaviours were detected
and nothing was done to correct it...), the 2016 season began with a coach appeared
at the last minute with some players signed who could not play for the famous
"FIFA Case" and the desire to come back to 2ªA quickly. The reality
was very different. At the end of the year the team was in position for the relegation
to 3rd Division. Excuses were everywhere ("they are very
young," "no experience", "the FIFA case"...) and when
the winter market came there was a revolution. A lot of new players (7?, 8?, 9?...
I do not remember), which also meant a lot of players released.
In summer they had gone some as Adama; others, like Deulofeu, still running
around Europe and it seems with no return. The latter case seems pretty clear:
Quality, indisputable. The character, too. And I wonder, with so many coaches,
assistants, psychologists, etc. that we have in the club, no one has sat a
couple of hours with this kid to see what happens? And I ask the question from
complete ignorance. I have no idea if this has happened or not.
Other players left because, by contract, should be promoted to the first
team. Amazing!!! The top of incompetence. Having in a formation team players that
are promoted by contract and not because the quality. And, of course, there
wasn’t room for them at the 1st team. And therefore...
We continue. Two names: Grimaldo and Robert Gonçalves. The first seems
not very "friend" of Luis Enrique and this does not want it for the 1st
team. Until here, it’s perfect. Now, if the club believes it is a player with a
future, why not to loan him and we'll see in a while? Well, no. Sold. No option
for buy-back. The second, a player who came on loan from Fluminense of Brazil
and sold to us as the new... Neymar! He came to "cost 0" (this was told
to us), with a buying option this summer for 7M€. First, if he was overweight;
then we know nothing more. The truth is that it has played in the league,
exactly the same as its price: 0 minutes. And what is worse, without any
explanation.
Now, it seems that for next year, a new revolution for B is prepared,
with the aim of being promoted to 2ªA. It sounds good to me... or maybe not.
The aim of B is to prepare players to be promoted to the 1st team. The higher the
B is, more competitive and therefore better for the players. So far, the theory
is fantastic. The problem is putting it into practice. There have been games
where only 2 B players were coming from La Masia. 2!! Is this Barca B?????? Is
this a formation team ???? If I was told that next year there will be 4 or 5 of
these "new" in the 1st team, although I could understand, however, it
seems that this will not be the case.
This revolution also seems to be aimed to find/sign other kind of
players: now we have to look more "physical" players. This is, Roura
continues working, as we have said, "the model" but when they reach
17, only the bigger and the stronger will continue. Is that, isn’t it? That is,
as I said before three "Technical Secretaries", each one making the
war on their own, with no one, at Executive Technical level, marking the line
of the Club. We go like this.
Why do we want a "Formative Amateur Football" full of quality
players if, when they reach the Juvenil B, w will not want them for being small?
Why do we want Juveniles and a B if, hardly, they will not contribute with
player for the first team? And, to contribute means players who can compete
with those who are playing. Having 20 minutes in a cup game against 2ªB team...
Zubizarreta said one day, when he was still the Technical Director:
"If we don’t find out what we want, we will have to look for it at home."
Translation: the priority of B is NOT the formation for the first team. The
priority of B is... I cannot see it.
By the way, it seems that Samper is one of those players who, as he has no
"physical aspect", it is quite difficult for him to stay at the 1st
team. Nothing more to say.
Jordi Pascual
You can follow me on twitter: @JordiPascualP
