Former Barca midfielder sheds light on Barcelona without Messi, explains why going back to La Masia is the way forward

The summer departure of Lionel Messi from Barcelona has left a huge void and saying the club hasn’t struggled lately would be a major understatement. The Spanish giants are currently going through a transition under Xavi Hernandez, who is trying to introduce a new style of play with new signings.

As the club sets sights on Champions League qualification, former Barcelona midfielder Gaizka Mendieta believes they have gone through a few changes during the pandemic. 

La Masia has been an instrumental factor in Barcelona’s success and the academy has produced world-class gems including Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi. Mendieta shed light on the transition and opined whether the club can go back to its academy in the grand scheme of things.

“We saw Barca at some point selling young players, which is not the case. They will normally use older mature young players, and then sign currents somewhere else to kind of get the balance right, in a dumb point in a way they were like buying way too many players and not really looking down the academy the reasons why I think that kind of went through a few changes. So we were kind of not so much looked into it as probably they should have. I think now that you say that they’re starting to look more into the team maybe,” said Mendieta.

“Maybe also because of the situation in the club, so they were forced on also nothing not only Barca because the pandemic made a lot of the clubs to have done in the lost time the academy and develop and invest more, rather than going in marketing buy because of the financial situation as well, which has been great. I think, especially for Barca, we see so many challenges, Pedri, Gavi, Ansu Fati, I think there’s a future I mean, guess there’s so much talent in the team in the academy too, to now bring you into the team,” he added.

The recent results have shown that Barcelona are headed in the right direction. A statement victory against Atletico Madrid returned Xavi’s side into the top four for the first time since September, with Atletico now two points behind in fifth. 

Barca were ninth in the league, six points behind Atletico in fourth, when Xavi was appointed coach. Mendieta heaped praise on Xavi, who is trying to strike a balance between the youth and experienced talent. 

“How long, I mean, they’re already present, we see we see the team Xavi, I think is a perfect manager to bring because he was there myself a few years ago. So it is a perfect match for them to help them to grow. I’d say this type of business is getting the base foundations to settle and be strong. And bringing like, good players like they bring in with experience will have the young players learn and get the balance you need in the team,” Mendieta further said.

“So I say the top year for two to three years to get the team as we’ll talk about the leverage in the shabby player days; I think we need at least those two, three years. I mean, we’re getting here, theoretically, because again, injuries, players that might know better now. 

“So it was like, you know, like going up a circuit and then unlucky that you get all these injuries. So if you look up the players put there, Pedri again, it was so people charged for both his pain and birth and then you get changes for so long. So it’s difficult to predict. But I think in general terms, these situations take about two or three years to the jump,” he added.