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Football News: Presidential Elections Hinder Barca Transfers

Presidential Elections Hinder Barca Transfers
Image from: sportal.co.nz

This summer has highlighted a ludicrous situation in the UEFA rules, with Barcelona, despite a transfer ban that lasts until next January, still signing players. Though it also exposes the greed of the modern footballer, happy to sit out 6 months of football to get a move there, even though Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal are unlikely to be any more than bench warmers after those 6 months are up.

Personally, I would not want a player who was happy to miss out on 6 months of football just to sit on the bench after that. It shows a lack of desire, in my opinion, which is why I find it bizarre that Barca are even trying to sign players right now.

The only players that will join are the kinds of players a team aiming to win trophies should not be signing. The lack of desire is what often stops an outstanding youngster becoming a great player in later life. It is often the difference between clinching the title on the last day or folding and losing it.

 

Even more bizarre is that the players might not join anyway, depending on the results of the presidential elections, which could be very embarrassing indeed. What will Turan do if Bartolomeu fails to win the election and the new president cancels the transfer? He has completely burnt all his bridges at Atletico Madrid now, so it is certain he can not go back there.

It might actually be to Barca's advantage to cancel those two transfers anyway, as, in my opinion, they have made the mistake that many great teams do. They have stopped trying to look for better players than those they have and signed players to back up what is there. The moment you stop moving forward then you are going backwards compared to all around you.
What Barca should have been doing, if they could not find anyone to improve on what they have, is bring in youngsters to push those players forward in the future. Young players who force those already in the team to keep their game at a high level or risk losing their place. Instead they brought in people who are never going to push those in the team.

It is oddest of all because the weakness is, as always, at the back, with a central defence that has still not found a replacement for Carles Puyol. There is Thomas Vermaelen, who is injury prone, Jeremy Mathieu who also seems to pick up his fair share of knocks, Marc Bartra, who is clearly not trusted and Javier Mascherano, who simply is not a central defender by any stretch of the imagination.
You would think that the club would want to sign players to fix their weaknesses primarily. That is the problem with these presidential elections though, the players have to be the kind of signings that get fans excited or they are not going to get elected. So the needs will go unfulfilled for yet another year.

Written by Tris Burke July 10 2015 10:52:50