Nurturing the youngsters
Barcelona’s philosophy of nurturing youngsters and promoting the gems to the senior team from La Masia has borne sweet fruits in the past. Lionel Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and countless other names can attest to the above notion. Sadly, in the last few years, this ideology based approach was fading.
Barca became just another club that bought top players which has miserably backfired in the sporting as well as the financial sector for the club. Joan Laporta and his board face an uphill task to pull the club out of the financial turmoil while also having several players who don’t fit in the project that were signed by the previous board.
This summer is monumental for the club as the board aims to offload unwanted players and trim the wage bill. Under Ronald Koeman, Barcelona have tried to return to the ethos of trusting in the youth and giving the burgeoning youngsters of La Masia chances in the first team.
The likes of Ansu Fati, Ilaix Moriba and Oscar Mingueza have excelled from La Masia and have left the supporters in awe simply by the amount of talent and skill they possess. Other youngsters like Ronald Araujo and Sergino Dest have also been terrific under Koeman. However, the standout youngster was Pedri who shown unreal quality.
Barcelona, who were once criticized for having one of the oldest squads in the 2019-20 season, recorded an average age of 25.33 in the recently concluded season, having the third-youngest squad in the La Liga.
Koeman has done a satisfactory job in handing out appearances to the youngsters and this should continue going into next season as well. Riqui Puig has not been given a lot of chances by the Dutchman but when he’s on-field, the 21-year-old has looked flawless.
Developing the youngsters should be one of the main objectives for Koeman next season so that Barcelona can have a strong core and rock-solid support cast.
Will Barcelona manage to achieve the objectives next season under Ronald Koeman?