Why dont Barca sign players.

This is the third season and they are starting to fall off the pace. As you would expect its because, they arleady small squad they had is getting older and they are not bringing in any new fresh legs.

Now I know recently the trend has been to jump on the Barsa bandwagon and there has been a massive influx of supporters over the last 5 years particular, who might oppose the fact that Barsa do indeed sign players. Here is a run down since Laporta took office.

In 2003-2004

Rüstü Recber------Fenerbahce-----€ 0

Ricardo Quaresma-Sporting CdP----€ 6.350.000

Ronaldinho--------PSG------------€ 32.250.000

Gio---------------Arsenal----------€ 0 Loan

45m Euros

In 2004 - 2005

Giovanni van Bronckhors------Arsenal----€ 0

Henrik Larsson---------------Celtic------€ 0

Demetrio Albertini------------Atalanta---€ 0

Ludovic Giuly----------------Monaco----€ 8.500.000

Edmílson-------------------- Lyon-------€ 8.000.000

Maxi López------------------River Plate--€ 6.500.000

Juliano Belletti---------------Villarreal----€ 6.000.000

Samuel Eto'o----------------Mallorca-----€ 27.000.000

Deco-----------------------Porto--------€ 21.000.000

Sylvinho--------------------Celta--------€ 1.500.000

Lionel Messi----------------Barcelona B---€ 0 Promoted

78me

This is during the period where they were weeding out the old over paid, under performing starts of the back end of the infamous Gaspart and van Gall era. Cocu, Kluivert, Overmars, de Boar, Geovanni, Queresma. All gone. These new versitile players where being brought in and the youth players of Messi and Iniesta and the ever emerging stars of Xavi and Puyol where coming to strengths. The idea being to mix the two into playing the "tiki taka" system we see today. We have seen and they have been trained in. With the idea of bringing more youth players through and mixing them with the quality players they could sign in the future.

As finances where still tight and this team was only getting better and better they decided to take a small splash in the transfer market with only 2 free signins.

in 2005 -2006

Santiago Ezquerro------Athletic Bilbao----€ 0

Mark van Bommel-------PSV Eindhoven---€ 0

Free

In 2006 - 2007

Lilian Thuram-----------Juventus---€ 5.000.000

Gianluca Zambrotta-----Juventus---€ 14.000.000

Eidur Gudjohnsen-------Chelsea-----€ 12.000.000

31m

After the Juventus relegation they jumped in for a new LB, one who was regarded top 3 in his position at the time and took advantage of the crisis in Italy to steal Zambrotta for a pittance. They also added some depth with Thuram on the cheap and replaced Larsson with Gudjohnsen (haha fail)

Now though as their brand was increasing, winning titles, and getting a broader audience they where able to start reaping the rewards of the system they had in place and top up the team with quality.

in 2007-2008

Thierry Henry-----Arsenal----€ 24.000.000

Gabriel Milito------Zaragoza--€ 20.000.000

Éric Abidal------- Lyon-------€ 15.000.000

Yaya Touré------Monaco-----€ 12.000.000

Gio dos Santos---Barcelona---€ 0--------Promoted -- Next Ronaldinho - NO - Failed

Víctor Sánchez---Barcelona --€ 0--------Promoted -- Decent youther - Failed

Marc Crosas------Barcelona -€ 0---------Promoted -- Decent youther - Failed

Bojan Krkic-------Barcelona - € 0-------- Promoted -- Next best striker in the world... NO - done ok at first but ultimately failed. Pedro------------Barcelona- € 0---------Promoted -- No one knew who he was, been a surprise package from Pep who managed him at youth level.

José Pinto--------Celta------€ 500.000 Loaned ---- Later signed the request of Messi.

€ 71.500.000

Madrid had gotten closer and won a couple of titles and barsa now had a good turnover and where no longer struggling to balance the books. They were sufficiently financed to buy good players and they did. They had been making money, never like before and so they started to spend it never like before too.

2008 - 2009

José Manuel Pinto -------Celta de Vigo-----€ 0---- At the request of Messi

Henrique----------------Palmeiras--------€ 8.000.000 - Tried to be smart and snap up SA talents, failed.

Gerard Piqué------------United-----------€ 5.000.000

Dani Alves--------------Sevilla-----------€ 34.250.000

Martín Cáceres---------Villarreal----------€ 16.500.000 - Tried to buy talented youth from a Spanish side, FAILED

Aliaksandr Hleb---------Arsenal-----------€ 15.000.000 - Brainfart, they happen often for Pep

Seydou Keita-----------Sevilla------------€ 14.000.000

Sergio Busquets--------Barcelona---------€ 0 -------- Promoted -- Decent but wont be Xavi, Iniesta, Messi material. He fits the system, just like Pedro

€ 92.750.000

2009-2010

Zlatan Ibrahimovic---------Inter------------€ 49.000.000 + Plus Samuel Eto'o ---- Haha one of the worse buys, pep persoanlly requested him.

Maxwell-------------------Inter-------------€4.500.000

Dmytro Chygrynskiy-------Shakhtar Donetsk--€ 25.000.000 -- Another of peps personal requests failed, sold a year later for 15m

€ 92.500.000

2010 - 2011

David Villa-------------Valencia-----€ 40.000.000

Javier Mascherano------Liverpool----€ 21.000.000

Adriano----------------Sevilla-------€ 9.500.000

Ibrahim Afellay---------PSV---------- 3.000.000

€ 73.500.000

2011 - 2012

Kiko Femenía-------Hércules--€ 2.000.000

Alexis Sánchez-----Udinese---€ 26.000.000

Cesc Fàbregas-----Arsenal---€ 29.000.000

Rodri--------------Sevilla----€ 1.500.000

€ 58.500.000

So as we can see, barsa, once they started making money and climbing out of that mountain of debt they where in started to buy players. The "we dont buy superstars we make them" comment from laporta was completely false and it seems to be implemented into the game.

The game registers them correctly selling off the dead wood and realeasing the older players but why are they out making record signings like they normally do?

Because the AI squad building is mediocre in the current versions of FM. Made a similar post last year about this, in my saves Madrid and Barca were on £200m transfer budgets every year yet weren't using that spending power at all to aggressively sign top players from other good/top sides (like they've done IRL - e.g. Fabregas, Ronaldo, Kaka, Sanchez, etc etc), instead happy to obtain a bunch of mediocre players with e.g. 130 CA and 160 PA for £10m a go. The only club that seems to actively chase top players in this game is Man City, everyone else are pretty much dormant and totally reliant on regens to remain competitive.

IMO something was tweaked too much. I remember SI talking about the credit crunch climate a when FM 11 was in development, maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe it's the agents who are messing things up. Who knows.

The annoying this is that in earlier versions of CM/FM, AI clubs used to be fighting over themselves whenever a top talent was available, it was like a feeding frenzy and a top player would often have 10+ top European clubs competing for his signature. Ultimately AI squad building was good during that era of CM/FM, clubs actually used their buying power. So it's not like we're asking for some kind of "ideal model" that is too difficult to obtain with a management simulation.

I'd say Bayern always build good sides so do Lyon.

Because they think their youth are the best and they think they are untouchable.

Nice post and one that highlights some issues that I hope SI look at. The long term playability of the game revolves around the AI building strong competitive squads and better managers identifying players that will improve their squads.

Because they think their youth are the best and they think they are untouchable.

Initially this is what I was gonna say, but after reading your post I'm gonna echo basically what monkey and bluebird said. The AI is not great at squad building and its something that, once SI improve, would increase the fun of long term games.

I find this to not be so true, I manage malaga and have various times been beaten to a player by barca getting him. As well as these in my game they paid around 50million for Neymar who has turned out to replace messi and now plays more than him. I think if you give barca a few season for the older players to...well get old, then you will see they start bringing in some players.

Because they think their youth are the best and they think they are untouchable.

The only player in the youth team in FM12 is Thiago. All the rest will be sold of and loaned out. You cant keep producing the talent like Messi, Iniesta and Xavi every year. Specially in Fm too, you barely get 1 youth player a year regen who could make it in your first side.

@jmf, nice post up there. Laughed my ass off how all the barca fans claimed their stars are all Barcelona-made youths.

And they always mock at English teams and RM for spending!

maybe their currently players still have high CA and so they only look to buy players of equivalent or exceeding CA/PA.

since there are very few of these top quality players, they dont buy anyone.

not suggesting this is the right thing for barce to do in the game, but it could be the reason that needs looking at.

Clearly not hassling Arsenal enough to force through transfers

Interesting, I do agree that there are issues with AI squad management in the game. However in my save Barca have spent only £30m in 5 years but they still have a fantastic squad and have won 4 league titles and been in 3 Champions League finals in that time. On my save at least I can understand them not spending huge as they already have a dominating squad, the test will be to see what they spend in future years as that squad gets older.

On the other side of the coin in the same save Spurs have spent nearly £400m in that same timeframe so clubs will spend money.

I'm getting tired of all these Barcelona threads. Everybody tries to mimic their formation and football philosophy, but some clearly don't have a clue.

You can't possibly say that Busquets and Pedro are "decent" players who "fit the system".

Must be frustrating for Busquets (who seems to have a bit of an ego) to always somehow be seen as a decent squad player when he's a regular in one of the best teams of all time and a world champion with Spain...

@jmf, nice post up there. Laughed my ass off how all the barca fans claimed their stars are all Barcelona-made youths.

And they always mock at English teams and RM for spending!

Not sure why the Real Madrid fans just can't accept that RM is in a bad period, both football-wise and reputation-wise.

Instead you spam forums with useless threads trying to take away from Barcelona that what they have accomplished in the last 3 years is nothing but exceptional.

Real Madrid spend close to 400 million pounds last season, much more than Barcelona added up in the past many years.

Barcelona can field a team of 11 homegrown players and still win Primera Division each year. Real Madrid has one homegrown player (I assume Casillas is). Currently Barcelona is typically fielding 7 out of 11 players per match that has been grown out of their own youth system. All of them play for the spanish national team, except Messi that has been at Barca since he was 13.

Not sure why the Real Madrid fans just can't accept that RM is in a bad period, both football-wise and reputation-wise.

Instead you spam forums with useless threads trying to take away from Barcelona that what they have accomplished in the last 3 years is nothing but exceptional.

Real Madrid spend close to 400 million pounds last season, much more than Barcelona added up in the past many years.

Barcelona can field a team of 11 homegrown players and still win Primera Division each year. Real Madrid has one homegrown player (I assume Casillas is). Currently Barcelona is typically fielding 7 out of 11 players per match that has been grown out of their own youth system. All of them play for the spanish national team, except Messi that has been at Barca since he was 13.

Stop being delusional. And for god's sake. Im not a RM fan. I just feel irritated at Barcelona fans hogging forums like this, at news site, they are almost everywhere.. Claiming how good they are. Dont you feel pissed? Seeing barca tactics everywhere. People forget how Arsenal, Madrid, Man utd, Ajax and others played their football.

And i did not say Barca isnt a good team. I just said i laughed my ass off how Barca fans always claim they dont spend and managed to win the likes of RM and others

Barca spent 52.8m in the summer window (most recent one),

Madrid spent 48.4

RM spent around 70+m in 10/11

Barca spent 63.8

Barcelona have a history of bad signings(read 1st post).

Sure Barcelona is at their best now, and i admire their football. But i hate it when Barcelona babies like you badmouth RM and english clubs because they spent money and lost UCL to barca. IMO the only teams to manage their finances(and signings) well are Arsenal, Tottenham, Everton(Moyes)

same problem in fm11. barca and real dont strengthen their team.

I'd never forget how united plays....

Interestingly enough, the other day I was talking to me dad and he said that the team he thinks has the most exciting attack right now, in his eyes, is Man United. He hates united.

People like to emulate barcelona because their style of play is probably the hardest to emulate in this game. People like the challenge.

Anyways back to the matter at hand. Yes barcelona spend a lot like most big teams with a lot of money do. But its not just barcelona who making unrealistic transfers in the game. Most clubs in the game are not very good at making signings especially in long term games. And that is down to the AI.

The way the AI thinks and reacts are the issues here. That and the ME are the things that SI should really be looking to improve imo

Lacina Traore was bought by Barcelona and sold later for about 16.5M in 2017. Not world class, of course, but made them money.

RM spent around 70+m in 10/11

Barca spent 63.8

Barcelona have a history of bad signings(read 1st post).

Which team doesn't have a history of bad signings?

If RM only spent 70 million in 2010/11 it was because they spend 400 million in 2009/2010.

Oh, and I am a Liverpool fan btw.

2008 - 2009

José Manuel Pinto -------Celta de Vigo-----€ 0---- At the request of Messi

Henrique----------------Palmeiras--------€ 8.000.000 - Tried to be smart and snap up SA talents, failed.

Gerard Piqué------------United-----------€ 5.000.000

Dani Alves--------------Sevilla-----------€ 34.250.000

Martín Cáceres---------Villarreal----------€ 16.500.000 - Tried to buy talented youth from a Spanish side, FAILED

Aliaksandr Hleb---------Arsenal-----------€ 15.000.000 - Brainfart, they happen often for Pep

Seydou Keita-----------Sevilla------------€ 14.000.000

Sergio Busquets--------Barcelona---------€ 0 -------- Promoted -- Decent but wont be Xavi, Iniesta, Messi material. He fits the system, just like Pedro

What's a "Brainfart" ?

Your one save doesn't equal how it always works, Barca buy plenty on my save. Suspect its an issue with Pep's stats, Ancelotti is their manager on mine and he frequently spends...

What's a "Brainfart" ?

Basically all of the comments and analysis in the original post can be attributed to these "brainfarts". Momentary lapses in concentration leading to you doing something remarkably stupid...

Which team doesn't have a history of bad signings?

If RM only spent 70 million in 2010/11 it was because they spend 400 million in 2009/2010.

Oh, and I am a Liverpool fan btw.

Note: Numbers might not be accurate [Revenue's are in €, while fees are in £.]

Madrid spent 226.512.000 £, received 77.000.000 £ in terms of tranfser fees[-149.512.000 £]

Barcelona's = -77.880.000 £

I replied to you because you said RM is a bad team, and i disagree with you.

Like what you quoted on what i said: "Barcelona have a history of bad signings(read 1st post)."

If my memory didnt fail me, RM signing fitted in quite well. Barcelona's doesnt.

How is that failing on football-wise and reputation-wise when they earn much more on merchandising and their players slotted in well?

In terms of reputation (merchandising & etc)(2011's):

-Commercial revenue: RM is ahead by 30€m.

-matchday revenue : RM is ahead by more than 30€m.

-Broadcast revenue: Barca ahead by 20€m.

-Increase of 80€m of revenue from 2009 to 2010

-Another 40€m increase from 2010 to 2011.

[They are earning 80m+ more than Barca through the above 3]

Long story short: In the coming years, particularly as UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules take effect, Real Madrid’s revenue prowess should, in theory, translate into a competitive advantage on the pitch. In the short term, Los Merengues will need their star player signings of 2009 to justify their transfer value on the pitch both domestically and in the Champions League in order to maximise its revenues and keep ahead of great rivals Barcelona in the Money League.

This ^ is considered one of the best in reputation-wise. Cant be compared by midtable teams top 4 teams. Without considering their history.

As for saying RM is bad on the pitch, you are wrong, they are a strong team, have by far one of the greatest history in world football.

And Btw im not a RM fan, i hardly watch la liga.