>I wonder about this though because some of those players were
>forced out due to a lack of PT with the Xavi/Iniesta/Messi
>generation. Thiago, Traore, Bellerin. During that
>post-Guardiola period we'd been more interested in big signing
>than in grooming our own.

IMO, the only two clear misses from that generation wer Thiago (but what a HUGE miss that was) and Grimaldo second. Grimaldo + Enrique have some sort of issue, but he'd be a nice LB for the squad.

Bartra could have been a squad defender. You're right--a lot of what happened was Rosell and Barto's emphasis on big signings over la masia. Using transfrmarket (I know, bad data), Traore is monetarily a big miss, but I don't think he'd provide the answer up front. Bellerin ain't it for me at all. After that, it's Cucu (if Balde is what I think he is, not a miss), and then Kubo--which was really just a mindblowingly weird situation.

but we're talking, from a 5-8 year span, Thiago, Gimaldo, Bartra, Traore,Bellerin and Cucu. And in comparison, right now, there's Araujo (signed for Barca B, still counts in a way), Mingueza, Dest (admittedly a first team signing), Puig, Alena, Ansu, Pedri (a signing), and Trincao (not really shining and was a signing).

And that doesn't count the B team players on the cusp--Jandro, Balde, and Ilaix probably the top three.

>This is definitely true. Before the injuries, he was our best
>defender. People weren't really paying that much attention
>until a few months before he got hurt, but he was beasting.

Back then he was outplaying Pique and Pique was much closer to prime Pique.