BARÇA B AND OTHER STUFF

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 1^st, 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 3^rd 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 1^st 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 1^st 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 1^st team. Nothing more to say.

Jordi Pascual

You can follow me on twitter: @JordiPascualP

MORE SHOPPING

The majority of European seasons, except for the Nordics, Russia, Ireland and some more are coming to the end. We are knowing the champions, the teams that will play in Europe, the ones that will lose the category, the ones that will be promoted, etc. It's the moment the big dance of each year begins, with players and coaches packing to leave a place and go to another.

Now it is the time where you will see the work done by the various Technical Secretariats. It's not an easy job. You have to work many months to provide the coach (a new one or the same one, it’s the same), a number of players that can be used to improve the current squad. Clubs that will be forced to sell to balance their budgets. Clubs that will be able to pay anything for that desired player. Clubs that will miss 2, 3, 4 or 8 players, for whatever reason, and must make a new squad.

Although it is not an easy task, the work of the Technical Secretariat is much better than a few years ago. Today it is possible to watch on TV the majority of the Leagues in the World. In one place or another, you can watch every week hundreds of games and thousands of players. Clubs with less budget may only have 1 person for this job and, in the most modest, is the same coach who does all the functions at once.

And, this is where I start to wonder. How big clubs may not sign virtually unknown players, and later they will pay the price of gold when they start to show up in an average team? How can you have Serbs, Poles or Greeks (to give some examples), which are in some average teams without that great teams know anything about them? How is this possible that often see very good level players in regional categories, which could be much higher? It is true that it is not possible to see all the players in the World but sometimes you understand nothin. Because, of course, to sign Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo (today), my nephew, who is 11, can do it, and he only  watches Barça’s matches. To sign them with 15-16 years you have to work more. Or, to sign a 19-year young Swede playing in the first division of his country and bring it to a Top-Ten, you have also to work. May be is this, not work hard enough or, maybe they do not know, many of them, what they have to look for in a player or, what kind of player the Club searches or, any other reason.

You look for a full-back and you finish signing an "adaptable" winger, you looking for a play-maker and you take a defensive midfielder. You are looking for a striker and you take a quick forward that can open spaces on the side. You are looking for a goalkeeper good on aerial ball and you take one that plays well with his feet. And so, whatever you want. And, when the player is "perfect" for the needs of the team, this is worth a lot of money unreachable. Should not the Clubs have a list of players (4-5 for the more modest, 15 to 20 for those with more resources) for each position? And should not be all its features (technical, tactical, economical, personal, etc.), included in the file? Sometimes it seems that the one that signs has done it because the player is highly regarded in any of the simulation games that are about football, because if not, often you don’t understand things.

And, not all players are good to play in any team. Each team plays one way and the players that go well for it are not the same that go well for another team, which plays differently. A typical question is: And why was this one playing so well on that team and he does not in this one? Simple, because the team plays differently and functions to do by the player are different, and his characteristics are not good for this style of play. And you see that working and watching players and games and, more players and more games. And, also, knowing exactly how your team plays and which player is the one that really serves. And it is hard work and often not done. May also be one of the problems.

And, forgive me, but I don’t understand that, with so many people in the Technical Secretariats you finish asking a player to the “Agent on duty”. I'll take the one he represents, and he will charge the corresponding commission. The fault lies not with the agents, it is clear. Blame it on those who didn’t do the job they had to do. When you go shopping, you have to know what you want to buy, because if not, you’ll pay for a 600 (Fiat 500), the price of a Porsche.

Jordi Pascual

You can follow me on Twitter: @JordiPascualP