Barca's New Generation

I have a gap in my diary this morning, so decided to finally write this article on Barca's new talent. A few users (I cannot recall their names) have asked me what I think about the new crop of exciting talent coming through at Camp Nou and I promised I would eventually get round to it. Since then I have been wall to wall with this bloody independent football regulator, but I have a pretty free diary until this PM so here we go!

There is no simple way to butter things up: Barca have been poor for the last 2 years domestically, and certainly even longer on the European stage. Far too often in the last few seasons the entire side was dependant entirely on the magic of Messi, unbalancing the team in a strange way, but since he left things are starting to feel a little bit different now in terms of how Barca are currently equipped as an XI.

At the heart of the 'rebuild' if you could call it that, are an exciting young crop of players who I genuinely do think can go right to the very top. Even more exciting for the Blaugrana faithful is that a couple of them are from the famed academy; Barcelona's domination of football from 2008 was centred on academy players, something the supporters remain incredibly proud of and have wanted to see more of for years. Now they finally are. To make this easier I will just list below the new crop of talent and descriptions of their position and why I rave about them.

Ronald Araujo: CB, 23 years old

The Uruguayan is an absolute colossus of a defender: pace, positioning defensively, height, great in the air and a threat from set pieces! Xavi has been critical of him on the ball, but that is incredibly harsh in my opinion. Not from the academy but I compare him to VVD and I stand by it. Probably the best young CB in Europe right now and he's just renewed his contract too. Barca do need someone to go alongside him though, I think Laporte would be perfect as Pique is 35.

Pedri: CM, 19 years old

At 19 years of age, Pedri is easily the best young player in the world by far. I love Foden and, while Pedri is a different player to him, the Spaniard is better too. A Barca fan from birth who rejected Madrid, how on earth he was signed for such a nominal fee from Las Palmas is beyond me. Barca is in his blood, despite the fact he's not from the academy but watching him play you wouldn't think that. He simply oozes natural ability, can beat men for fun and has an insane passing range. I've not seen such great technique in a teenager since Messi. The only drawback he has is he doesn't score enough goals, but at 19 that can change.

Gavi: CM, 17 years old

At Barca since age 11 and brought in from Betis. He's not quite as polished as Pedri, but this lad is a proper natural footballer and he has a nasty streak in him too. Whether that's due to age or a natural instinct remains to be seen, but Gavi has taken Barca by storm this season with so many incredible performances. As good as he is, i'm not quite sure he's 'defined' what he is yet. For example in some games Xavi plays him as part of a 3 up front, but I can't see him progressing much there. To me he's a tenacious CM with incredible skill and ability to beat men. His passing his also good, but not ridiculous. For a 17 year old, however, he's incredible.

Nico Gonzalez: CM, 20 years old

Right from the academy and funnily enough he's a bit underrated in my opinion. Whilst people rave, rightly so, about Gavi and Pedri I think Nico might just be a little bit under-appreciated. He's built like Rodri and is an extremely powerful player, unusual for a Barca academy midfielder, but he reminds me of KDB at times with how physical he is bombing around the pitch. Even more strange is that he's seen as the heir to Busquets, but whenever I see him I see a player more in the KDB mould. I think next year could really be his breakthrough, I could see him having a future as a dominant goalscoring CM.

Ansu Fati: 19 years old, forward

I don't feel like I need to talk too much about Ansu, as most people already know how much potential he has but what I will say is he is already incredibly injury prone and for me not as good as Vini Jr at Madrid. I've seen him play live quite a few times and his off the ball movement is naïve, whilst he's not quite as fast as people would think. For a 19 year old, yes he has incredible potential, but I think he's slightly overrated.

There are a few others like Puig, Mingueza and Balde but I don't know if they'll make it. Times are exciting for Barca and with Lewandoswki set to join, this lot of youngsters may get that leader they are looking for to start claiming the big prizes again!