Since the European Under-21 Championship final, where Thiago Alcantara secured Spain the victory with a lovely long-range chip over the goalkeeper, the Spaniard has been linked with a move for Manchester United, because of little time on the pitch for his current club Barcelona. Despite Thiago seems to have world-class potential, I don't want him to sign for United. Here's why:
by @Nicopoleides
Barcelona have a great academy system called La Masia, which have produced a lot of really good players over the last ten to fifteen years. Lionel Messi and Xavier Hernández are possibly the most obvious examples, and Pedro Rodriguez the most recent one to do well in the first team. As well, there are players to make their first-team breakthrough for other clubs after a 'permanent' transfer away from Catalunya. Current FCB centre-back Gérard Pique is one, Francesc Fábregas another. And Cristiano Ronaldo joins along to state the point, even he's nothing to do with Barcelona at all.
The main issue with signing players from Barca's talented youth sides is that when they eventually become good enough to be considered as world class, they want to return to Spain. Even if the player, which in this case is Cesc, is the star man and captain of his current club, it seems a done deal that he'll become a Barcelona player sooner or later, it's only a matter of time. Despite I've got no problems with Cristiano Ronaldo, he did about the same and went to his boyhood dream Real Madrid. He left a lot of good memories plus quite an amount of silverware, but when he left, £80 million weren't able to make a complete replacement.
I realise that every player's case is different to the next one, but for me it seems quite clear that Thiago Alcantara - and others, if signed - will return to Barcelona if he becomes that good. Then we'll end up like a farmer club, and that's not Man United worthy. Add on that a 'Cesc-esque' transfer will only leave the gap to Barcelona quality-wise even bigger, not smaller like most (all) fans are desperate to.
