In this special feature, Albert Bosch of Barcelona Toffees gives us the lowdown on two FCB players that have been linked with moves to Everton in recent weeks.
Albert offers his verdict on the players, and suggests that Barcelona’s impending transfer ban may scupper any potential deals.
Sergi Roberto:
Born in Reus, Catalunya, the 23 year-old midfielder has played for Barça youth teams since 2006. He has a direct style of play (i.e he prefers playing forward than passing sideways) and he can also defend properly. In my opinion he needs to improve his dribbling ability and also needs to be more decisive in the final third. He isn’t particularly fast either, but he understands the game very well.
He struggled a lot when he jumped from Barça “B” to the first team and he hasn’t played much in the last few seasons and that’s a problem because young players should improve their abilities by playing competitive games. For instance, this season he’s only played 400 minutes in La Liga. Nevertheless, in those few minutes he played better than in previous seasons. I have to say that the best games I’ve seen from him are in a Busquets role, rather than in a Xavi/Iniesta role. I think those comparisons with Xavi (Barça are desperate looking for his replacement in la Masia and can’t find one) panicked Sergi Roberto at the beginning and maybe that’s why he didn’t show all his potential when he got to the first team.
To be fair, I can’t see him joining Everton this summer because Barça won’t be able to sign any midfielders due to the FIFA ban, and Xavi is probably leaving for Qatar. Also, his contract expires in 2019 and Barça’s release clause for him is set at a ludicrously high €30M.
Adama Traoré:
Born in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Catalunya, in 1996 and of Malian descent, he’s got the fastest legs I’ve ever seen, with and without the ball. That’s why his nickname is “The arrow”. He doesn’t dribble, he just runs- defenders can’t follow him, and he’s good at 1 on 1 situations against goalkeepers. He can play on both attacking sides, although I think his favorite position is in the right wing. He needs to improve his passing game, his shooting and also needs to control his efforts when defending (he goes so fast and so strong that he gets booked quite often).
Although he’s already made his Barça first team debut, he’s still a Barça B player. Therefore, he still has to prove if he could play in a first division team the same way he’s been doing it in the second division with Barça B. And he also has to prove if he could do it for the 90 minutes without getting tired.
His contract expires in 2018 and I think he’ll stay at Barça B next season, where little by little, he’ll start to feature in the first team, but we cannot rule out a loan move. The problem is that Barça loanees haven’t worked recently and they might be reluctant to do many more. Cuenca, Bojan, Hleb, Afellay,… and even Rafinha and Deulofeu, who were expected to shine for Barça this season after their Celta and Everton spells are on the bench almost every week (and Deulofeu didn’t even stay at Barça!). So now Barça might prefer to keep their players at home, like they did with Valdés, Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Pedro, Busquets, etc.
Anyway, Adama Traoré’s future might be linked somehow to Pedro and Deulofeu’s future, and at the same time their futures depend on Luis Enrique’s. Therefore, we’ll have to wait and see what happens.
Meanwhile you will read and hear Catalan or Spanish journalists constantly looking for possible loan exits for young Barça talents. They usually say things like “half of the Premier League teams are after Martín Montoya”. Usually they talk rubibsh- it’s just lazy journalism, but you never know. With Adama Traoré and Sergi Roberto they’ve been doing the same, and Everton are always among the possible destinies because they believe that Martínez has a special relationship with Barça officials due to the fact he’s Catalan and because he once signed Deulofeu on loan.
A big thanks to Albert for his time and effort. You can follow Barcelona Toffees on Twitter at @BcnToffees.
