Watching the second half of the Audi Cup final last night between a Barcelona B team with David Villa and a first team Bayern was seeing a team with an average age of no more than 23 humiliate a european football powerhouse. And it was shocking. Barcelona, I realise, are essentially a machine: they churn out top quality young players. Every year, there are maybe 5-10 top quality youngsters (as good as Jack Wilshere) who come through the Barcelona youth system.
The reason I make the comparison with Jack Wilshere is because a while back Pep Guardiola claimed that the Barcelona B team possessed many Jack Wilsheres. The press in England weren't happy when he said this, I refused to believe him, but now, I think I do. Barcelona are staggering.
They are the Apple of the football world. Everybody is at their feet, and everybody is lightyears behind. Man Utd, Chelsea, Man City are not even close to having a youth system like Barcelona's where new Jack Wilsheres are produced weekly, the only team in England I can think of are Arsenal but even then, and I say this as a fan, the quality of the players we produce is completely inferior to Barcelona's.
All this then begs the question? Why do they need Fabregas? Why did they buy Sanchez? For Fabregas, I think Barcelona are a bit paranoid about the fragility of Iniesta and Xavi who are it is fair to say quite injury prone. Fabregas would be able to come in and play. Also Xavi is getting quite old now, he is 31, so maybe also Barcelona are thinking for the future. But for Sanchez I have no idea. They have 3 world class strikers already, why do they need another one?
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