David Villa is signing a four year contract to join Barcelona from Valencia. His signature is thought to have cost the Catalan club around 40 million Euros. This is a good signing for the two clubs involved: Barcelona get an elite forward and Valencia gets a large sum of money, something they desperately need with their current horrendous financial situation. The signing is obviously also good for Villa, who joins one of the top clubs in the world. Who doesn't benefit from this is Zlatan Ibrahimovic, whose first season with Barcelona has fa
iled to live up to expectations. Many could argue that Villa will be competing to play on the left forward position, with Ibrahimovic in the center and Lionel Messi playing on the right. This would leave out wonderkid Pedro though, who has had a much better season than Ibrahimovic and is much younger, thus making it more likely Villa has been signed to replace the big Swede instead.
iled to live up to expectations. Many could argue that Villa will be competing to play on the left forward position, with Ibrahimovic in the center and Lionel Messi playing on the right. This would leave out wonderkid Pedro though, who has had a much better season than Ibrahimovic and is much younger, thus making it more likely Villa has been signed to replace the big Swede instead. What has always intrigued me about David Villa's constant connection to Barcelona (which has been really gathered steam since Euro 2008) has been Barcelona appearing to think they desperately need him. Barcelona has the best youth system of any club in the world, I'm assuming there are fantastic forwards coming through their ranks, why was Villa ever necessary? They just shelled out 40 million Euros for a player whose skills could easily be duplicated by someone coming out of their successful system. The success of this academy is shown by how many players in their starting lineup participated in it: Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Victor Valdes, Carlos Puyol, Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, Pedro and of course, the fantastic Lionel Messi. Pedro and Busquets were only consistantly brought into the first team this year, and they have already displaced seasoned veterans at their positions for starts (Busquets replacing Yaya Toure, and Pedro replacing Thierry Henry). Are you telling me that Barcelona don't already have some young 19 year-old waiting in the wings to take over the center forward position? It would be foolish to bet against it. That makes this signing seem very unlike something Barcelona would normally do, along with signing Ibrahimovic last year and sending away Samuel Eto'o (absolutely foolish to think Ibrahimovic would be as good as Eto'o by the way). So while the signing of Villa is good in that it brings in a world class player at the center forward position, something Barcelona lacked this past year, I see it as a truly unnecessary signing. Barcelona's youth system will produce the next Messi or Pedro within the next couple of years, leaving David Villa not being vital to their set up. Which current Barcelona player does that sound like? Thierry Henry, who now spends much of his time sitting on the bench, watching Pedro's beautiful career begin.
So to tie this all together, the David Villa signing is good for Barcelona, although will be completely unnecessary within the next two to three years.
The thing about forwards and La Masia:
ReplyDeleteThere is actually a fairly weak history of successful forwards emerging from Barcelona's cantera (Messi and Bojan being the obvious exceptions). There is a MUCH greater emphasis on raising midfielders, specifically those who fit the Xaviniesta mold. The up-and-coming players in La Masia are almost all midfielders, including Jonathan Dos Santos,
Pedro's ascendency during the 09-10 season has been curious in that he scored these super important goals by kind of being out of position. His critics note his lack of tactical nous, and his tendency to run wildly and rather purposelessly in a bunch of different directions. His tendency to score important goals is astounding. Against a team like Inter, which was/is so tactically disciplined, Pedro was ineffective. Given that, I really don't think he's quite ready to start on the left wing for the whole season, and having Villa on the left wing would give him a lot of competition.
I highly doubt Zlatan will be sold this summer -- Guardiola has a plan for him which he intends to execute. Villa on the left wing gives Iniesta lot to work with, and the task of Barcelona's opponents become that much more difficult, as if they double mark Messi, while keeping an eye on Zlatan, they STILL have Villa to worry about. Only so many defenders against Barca's 4-3-3.
The biggest drawback about the Villa transfer, in my opinion, is that it still limits Bojan's playing time in the forward line, something he desperately needs to continue progressing as he has the past few seasons. Which I guess is what you were saying before I wrote four paragraphs. Damn.