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.
Who score goals for Barcelona?
From Ronaldinho to Ibra, Txiki in numbers
The Curse of Brilliance
Post-Laporta: Ibra, Marquez, or Chegrnskiy?
