Advocatus Diaboli
During the canonization process of the Roman Catholic Church, the Promoter of the Faith (Latin: Promotor Fidei), popularly known as the Devil's Advocate (Latin: advocatus diaboli), is a canon lawyer appointed by Church authorities to argue against the canonization of the candidate. It is his or her job to take a skeptical view of the candidate's character, to look for holes in the evidence, to argue that any miracles attributed to the candidate were fraudulent, etc. The Devil's advocate opposes God's advocate (Latin: Advocatus Dei; also known as the Promoter of the Cause), whose task is to make the argument in favor of canonization. This task is now performed by the Promoter of Justice (promotor iustitiae), who is in charge of examining how accurate is the inquiry on the saintliness of the candidate. (Wiki)
Barcelona Youth Academy:
Overrated!
Its causing headache for lot of None Barcelona fans already. Barcelona youth academy is rated for being one of its kind. You barely meet a Cule’ who is not talking about the brilliance of the Massiah, about the number of youth products who started the Champions’ league final against Manchester United, and about the upcoming promising talents waiting their chance to create a new history for the club. Alright, lets hold on a bit, Barcelona youth academy is good, no one can deny that. Still it is overrated.
Barcelona successful cycle started in 2003. Before that, the club was in a huge trouble that you can barely recall any success to praise. The time when they won the Champions’ league (1992), there were still boundaries governing the number of foreign players. So, all the teams in the world –including the ones who won the champions’ league- were counting on local players in the first place, with three imported stars.
When the Laporta era kicked off, the new board of directors showed their ambitions by signing top notch players in various positions. While the likes of Xavi and Puyol were already playing for the club during the bad periods before 2003, it’s the likes of Ronaldinho, Deco, Henrik Larsson, Ludovic Giuly, Samuel Eto'o, and Rafael Márquez who carried the club on their shoulders to crown it as a Liga and champions’ league winner. When the mentioned players’ performance declined, the club collapsed.
Then we come to the historical team of 2009. No doubt, players like Iniesta and Messi are quality talents. They could be considered as youth products even though their talents were already known since before joining the club. How long did it take Barcelona to produce Xavi, Puyol, Messi and Iniesta? Four quality players are not enough to praise a youth academy. Unless if you are counting the likes of Valdes (not even a third option for the national team), Busquets (even Barcelona fans don’t take him seriously beside when they want to count youth products to gloat), Bojan (When was it the last time he did anything special)? Or Pique (Who’s talent was reinvented outside Barcelona). Yet, ask yourself a question: How far would Valencia go if they had Alves, Yaya, Keita, Abidal, Eto’o, and Henry added to Valencia youth products? Sevilla? Hell even Sporting Gijon!
Aside of Pedro, who is having a good period at the moment though not yet a starter; the rest are still promises more than certainties. Names like Muniesa, Fontas, Jonathan dos santos, Thiago, and Jeffren reminds me of some other names like… Corsas, Botia, Giovani dos santos, and even Bojan. Big guns, yet no bullets.
The bottom of line Barcelona fans need to keep their feet on the ground. A good cycle produced couple of quality players, be thankful. Make your wish to get one or two quality youth in the following ten years. That’s the best you can expect.
Half Season performance Poll, Vote!
Barcelona 2010, Tactical Ramble.
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Romyan Said,
Barcelona ALWAYS had quality foreign players : Cryf, Maradona, Hagi , Stuishkov , Koeman , Romario, Figo , Ronaldo , Rivaldo , etc
but , in time of success , they would not success without home-grown players. Prior to Laporta , its true that Puyol and Xavi were there , but nobody can say that they were much better than Fontas and Jonathan right now .
In Raikard's era there was VV, Puyol , Oliguer, Xavi , Iniesta ; all of them regular players , the praise is given to others, but without the role of Messi, Iniesta , Valdes in Champions League no one would remember Raikard's era.
2009 , Messi and Iniesta stepped up , Xavi reached his prime , Puyol played everywhere, Valdes was brilliant with no praise as usuall ..
You said when foreign players failed the team failed , in my opinion it was the coach's fault not the players , and the proof is that when Pep came he used the same squad , without enforcement except Alves and Pique , and he made a major difference , he gave home-grown players responsibilities and they did not fail , they were the leaders of the best in history of football without Ronaldinho , Dico, and name about 7 other foreigners.
Messi , Iniesta , Xavi , Puyol , Valdes .. without any of them the team would not be the same like now .
Forgive my bad English .
Posted on February 8, 2010 at 6:32 AM
Feech Said,
@ Romyan
Your English? I don't care. But Cryf, Stuishkov, Raikard, Oliguer, Dico. Uhh...
Posted on February 8, 2010 at 9:44 AM
Sandvik Said,
Great point, I agree that Barca haven't produced, or should take all the credit for our development of young players who reach the first team.
This is also something which you can say about gunners, who buy young stars for their academy.
But Valdes? why shoulden't he be implemented as a part of a youth product? Even if he is not a choice for Spain, he is still outstanding. Spain has a lot od good goalkeepers. And Casillas has had his ups and downs, he made a lot of mistakes the first half of the season 2008/09 and in the first half of 2009/10. Valdes have not made his mistakes like he did under Rijkaard, and have done it better than Casillas after Pep took over, despite the fact that Casillas sometimes have some incredible saves.
Casillas took many personal titles last season most for spain and some for the best goalkeeper in Europe, that is so ignorant.
Bojan, he needs to play regularly to get back to his old form.
Posted on February 9, 2010 at 12:15 AM
zealot Said,
Ramzi, did you write this article? I think you are missing the whole point of Cules bragging about La Masia.
You are absolutely right. 6 players (Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, Valdes, Busi, Messi) seems like a small number to justify La Masia's supposed credibility, as a youth development institution. You are also right when you say 6 players don't make the whole team. But having 6 players out of 11 starters in UCL final, who were groomed 100% at La Masia (excluding Pique, although I doubt he gained anything much from his stay at Manchester), Cules have the right to be proud of that. La Masia is rightfully proud of that. When Cules praise La Masia, they don't undermine the contributions by imported players. Y'know, they are just being proud of the achievement of La Masia, which there were not so many modern football club did before.
Just ask youself, how far would Sporting Gijon go when they have Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Busi, Valdes, Pique, and Puyol in their ranks?
Posted on February 11, 2010 at 11:36 PM
Ramzi Said,
"Ramzi, did you write this article?"
No. It's Advocatus Diaboli:)
I cant post my own opinion in the same article. It won't make sense.
Posted on February 12, 2010 at 1:52 AM
zealot Said,
Oh sorry my bad. 'You' in my post is directed to Advocatus Diaboli then :)
Posted on February 12, 2010 at 3:18 AM
ivan Said,
i think you sometimes only try to shock, ramzi, that's all...
Posted on February 12, 2010 at 7:46 AM
Anonymous Said,
of the many things very wrong with all of ur post 1) you never mention fabregas as being a product of the barcelona youth system, or pep guardiola or ivan de la pena. 2)who cares if valdes is spains number 3, pepe reina came from the barcelona youth system anyway, so they have produced 2 of spains top 3 gk's.
Also ur last part is so retarded i cant even start to describe it, seriously ur an idiot
Posted on May 24, 2010 at 9:34 PM