Barca really abandoned la masia, huh?

@raimondo90 ikr, johan cruyff would be sad.

@raimondo Last great product la masia did was Munir and Sandro. I think its fair to say their academy is not producting player with enough quality to keep up with the other pro side or at least, not right off the academy. :(

@Golazo Lets hope he does develop into the new Xavi. :D

@Emo, both those players are below average to average. Aleña is touted to be class and he's not really breaking into the squad.

To think La Masia isn't great academy is apsurd, just that players can hardly break into team and when they get there they hardly maintain form because they can't get consistent playtime and there are always 2-3 players better than them at the same position.

From U17 generation that won U17 Euros and were in finals of U17 World Cup where they lost to England, Barca had few notable players such as Juan Miranda, Alejandro Orellana, Abel Ruiz, Sergio Gomez (who went to Borussia though), they also had Eric Garcia (who is now in City's U18s), they also have Riqui Puig. Probably you guys don't follow youth football so much (if you do, tell me) but I followed both Euros and World Cup and these guys were on par with Brazil and only worse than England. Some of these guys were standout players during the whole tournament.

They also have Vitinho, Cucurella, Palencia, Cuenca or Oriol Busquets (same position and playstlye as Sergio) in B team, and also sometimes bring players from La Liga teams which are lacking playtime such as Leiva from Betis and Rivera from Eibar to test them out (both deals are loans). They also got Canadian Ballou-Tabla who was apparently good in MLS.

I wonder does @tiki follow Barca's youth teams? Might be more interesting to see someone who follows it more comment here.

On Arthur, he is really great and seems to not actually be overrated like some of the other Brazilian prospects. I don't follow Brasilerao/Libertadores aside from when there is nothing else on TV, but I saw this guy play few times and he seems like quality player. €40M isn't enormous fee for young player these days, and I can comfortably say you would pay more for worse players in Europe.

IDK why people bring up the academy, the golden generation happens maybe once every 100 years, ofc they won't be able to put out those players again in such a short time. Barcelona is a big club that has also bought tons of players over the years.

@Golazo Fair enough.

@Golazo academy is important not only for the club but also for the national team. yes, you can't expect new messi to come out of the academy every year but at least, there must be someone good enough among hundred of youngsters.

To be fair, I agree with the rest of you who say academy are important and its a shame Barca doesn't seem to focus on theirs as much as before but it doesn't stop Barca from buyin some good player from time to time. Still think it being way too long since a Barca academy player was promoted to the first team succesfully.

Academy isn't that important when you are big team with tons of money, Barcelona is one of them, 1 good generation of the best ever Spanish players doesn't change that.

They are rebuilding slowly now which is always a good thing and if they don't get their target someone else will so investing like this is a good move from the club there is nothing better to do anyway, (even though so many were trashtalking Barcelona at the start of the season in full cause they were so scared when Neymar left) also some young players will be given a chance but lets not ignore the importance of buying players outside of their own academy, in the past they bought some of their best ever players, just count the Brazilians that they have or have had in the past and you'll see the reality...Romario,Ronaldo,Rivaldo,Ronaldinho and so on and so on...

@Golazo Yeah, at least, their not spending 150M on player who barely got a single pro season under their belt. Its reasonable to pay that amount for those player nowaday when you compare with talented young european player. Still a waste if they don't perform in europe so it will be quite interesting to see if those move work out for Barca. One thing for sure, Barca might actually be set for the next 10 year in certain area.

Too expensive, I would give Alena a shot, I also like Arnaiz...
Btw masia players aren’t supposed to only play for Barca many big players were formed there but never played for Barca : Icardi, Balo, Bellerin...
Reason why I was against signing Dembele, we could have developed a local one.
Btw Griezmann wife is looking for a house in Barcelona :D

@tiki Didn't even know Icardi ever was part of Barca academy. Thats just speak volume of the player la masia produced. Also, its seem pretty obvious Griezmann to Barcelona is official now.

@Emo Producing is maybe a big word when it comes to Icardi, he was a talented kid he could have gone to many places and still become what he is today, after all he joined Internazionale being what 19-21 years old?

I don't think 40 mil for a 21 year old that is so talented is too expensive either.

True, on big club pov might be different, since winning championship is prioritized over tradition. btw, respect to ajax for being stubborn about their academy philosophy. at least they reach europa league final last season with only self-developed players.

@Golazo Yesterday it was too much, today, its a right price and it will be cheap tomorrow.

@thebaldgenius True that, its too bad a lot of team nowaday are pressured into getting results and focusing only on that but it neat to see team suceeding with homegrown player as well.

@Emo Yea it's how it is.
IMO Athletic Bilbao is the most impressive team when it comes to homegrown players, they are always in the first league and play European football as well, just with players based in their region Basque...(Now that this became a theme).

@Golazo Thats true but Bilbao has really not look the same since Valverde left, something tell me he was for much in the team recent success. Still an amazing team

@Emo Bilbao was a good team even before Valverde. I can't imagine any other team that would play only with only local players and do as good as Bilbao.

@Golazo Well said, they are incredible with the player they have. I just hope its stay that way.