FC Barcelona: Signing Giuseppe Rossi is a bad idea

As I said on Thursday, in the Ask the Blaugranes Writers feature, I think the transfer of Giuseppe Rossi is unnecessary, and could even be called detrimental to the league. Yes, Barca need to improve if they have aspirations of winning their fourth consecutive Liga trophy, and compliment the outstanding individual quality with a squad depth to match, but is Rossi the way to go?

Not for me.

Buying from your rival league teams has its pros and cons. On the upside, that player will not need to adapt to the opposition, as they are the same as previous, and often, the style of your rival league sides is similar to yours, and this shortens the time the player will need to settle into his new squad.

But for every good point, there is a point that will dissuade you from purchase.

First off, buying players from your fellow league sides is likely to cost more than if you were a club from another country. This is especially the case at this level, as clubs are hesitant enough to lose their best players, let alone to a club in the same country. Secondly, this player is less likely to have had experience at the very highest level, and by that I mean the Champions League.

How will this player fair in the premier club competition? Can he replicate his domestic form on the continental stage?

Questions that are impossible to answer, until you pay the required fee of course (rumoured to be around €30 million). For a club of this stature, that should not be a problem. But remember this is "mes que un club" and while normal clubs have a manageable level of debt, this particular one was/is in danger of spiralling out of control financially.

The point? €30 million is a lot for yet another gamble.

All transfer dealings are just that, a gamble, but Pep Guardiola is not the best guy for taking gambles. Look at his track record. For every outstanding success, there has been at least one, if not two, dismal failures.

For every Dani Alves, there is an Ibrahimovic and Hleb.

For every Mascherano, there is a Keirrison and Chygrynskiy.

While Rossi is likely to be a Dani Alves, there is a distinct possibility that he could be an Ibrahimovic. Guardiola may be mes que un entranador, but when it comes to transfer dealings, especially with forwards, he is a failure. Ibra was beyond description for his price tag, the sale of Eto’o for peanuts was ludicrous, and some say that Villa’s transfer was misguided.

Back to my original point, about the transfer of Rossi being detrimental to the league, and for my example, look no further than Bayern Munich. Traditionally the strongest team in Germany, they have undergone a dramatic change over the past few years. Former Blaugrana coach Louis Van Gaal came so close to delivering football’s equivalent of the Holy Grail to the Allianz Arena, only to be outclassed by Mourinho’s Inter.

Domestically though, Bayern have been a catastrophe, staggering from one train-wreck to the next. Finally the higher powers gave Van Gaal the boot, opting to replace him with Jupp Heynckes, formerly of Bayer Leverkeusen, but their transfer policy remains the same: Poaching the best talent from their rivals.

Heading into the next season, Bayern will have signed Manuel Neuer from Schalke, Rafinha from the same side, Nils Petersen, who was leading scorer for second division Energie Cottbus, and are likely to sign former Hamburg defender Jerome Boateng and Arturo Vidal from Bayer Leverkeusen.

They will join former Stuttgart attacker, Mario Gomez, former Hoffenheim midfielder Luiz Gustavo and former Hamburg forward Ivica Olic. What has all this done to Bayern?

Pushed them back into mediocrity, in a mediocre league that can only boast thriving attendances.

Their best buys have been Robben and Ribery, who were bought from outside Germany, and if Barca can learn a lesson from Die Roten it’s that buying from your own league is not always the best policy.

Just remember the saying about not doing something where you eat...

In my opinion, Barca should just leave Rossi and Villarreal alone, let them concentrate on mounting a challenge for Real’s second place and reap the rewards.

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