There is no sign of a Barca replacement for Messi but there is for Real Madrid's Ronaldo in Asensio

Andy West 17:09 17/08/2017
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  • How times have changed.

    A few years ago, if a Clasico contained a wondergoal by a rising star who had been signed for a pittance at the age of 18, you would have been safe in assuming it was scored by Barcelona.

    But on Wednesday night, Marco Asensio’s superlative strike set Real Madrid on the way to a comfortable victory over an ageing Blaugranas team which has a limited shelf life and no successors in place.

    In fact, Asensio can be easily seen as the symbol of everything that has gone wrong at Barcelona, and everything that is going right at the Bernabeu: one young man, epitomising the starkly differing directions being taken by these two great clubs.

    It’s well documented that Asensio nearly joined Barca, not Madrid, from his hometown Mallorca in 2014, but the Catalan club were frustrated when Mallorca made late changes to the terms of payment and they decided against completing the deal.

    That allowed Madrid to step in and sign Asensio for €3million, but it was a purchase with a view to the long-term and they were prepared to be patient.

    Asensio was initially allowed to stay with second tier Mallorca on loan, and was then sent to Espanyol for another season before finally being recalled to the Bernabeu in the summer of 2016 – the rest, of course, is history.

    Interestingly, when Asensio headed to Espanyol on loan he effectively replaced another Madrid player who had spent the previous season at the same club: Lucas Vazquez, who also starred alongside Asensio in Wednesday night’s Super Cup victory.

    Now you can see a theme emerging: for the last few years, Real Madrid have been building a squad for the future.

    Rather than signing big names, they sign potential. Rather than expecting immediate results, they recruit players who can grow and develop.

    Marco Asensio with Lucas Vazquez (R) and Carlos Casemiro

    Marco Asensio with Lucas Vazquez (R) and Carlos Casemiro

    Asensio and Vazquez are two, but there are many more. Also impressing on Wednesday were Mateo Kovacic, Raphael Varane and Dani Carvajal, while Isco and Casemiro were rested.

    Late on, summer signings Theo Hernandez and Dani Ceballos debuted from the bench, while watching from the stands were Marcos Llorente and Jesus Vallejo, two more young players who will receive chances this season after impressing on loan spells away last year.

    All of those players, without exception, were signed when they were youthful potential, rather than proven professionals. They were nurtured, gradually developed and given a chance to blossom into the players they have now become.

    The end result is that Zinedine Zidane now has a squad of players who are young enough to stick together for many years, with two top-class alternatives for every position.

    Meanwhile, Barcelona introduced their latest signing today with the unveiling of Paulinho and, irrespective of his playing merits, signing a 29 year-old for €40million is exactly the kind of move that Real Madrid no longer make.

    Whereas Madrid have an eye on the future, Barca need instant results and the concept of ‘succession planning’ appears to have been completely overlooked.

    Who will replace key players like Andres Iniesta (33 years old), Luis Suarez (30), Gerard Pique (30), Ivan Rakitic (29) and Sergio Busquets (29) in the next few years?

    We have no idea, because the supply of talent from Barca’s academy has dried up and the club have not been recruiting top-class young players to compensate, so they will therefore be forced into costly forays into the transfer market.

    Andres Iniesta

    Andres Iniesta

    Most tellingly, there is no sign of anyone who might even begin to replace Lionel Messi, whose eventual decline and departure could send his club into a serious decline.

    Over in Madrid, however, the question of Cristiano Ronaldo’s long-term replacement causes no such palpitations because it is already well settled. He’s called Marco Asensio, and on Wednesday he could have been lining up in blue and red rather than white.

    The fact that he wasn’t tells us a great deal.

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