He is just 31 in March. Giggs lasted till 40 when he retired.
Plan:
Step 1: Sign Rakitic
Step 2: Sign Giggs as Yoga coach
Step 3: Profit?
Reality...
Positives...
1) Leader? Captain?
2) Quality
3) Great free kick taker ....James will win us lots of those
4) Could be a great influence to the younger lads...McTominay, Fred, Pogba (show him what a proper professional looks like), Longstaff?, Garner
Negatives
1) Old as fcuk. Good for what 2 years after which point you are already in to the bonus zone. At £30m, that is £15m a year which is reasonable for a top top player, but awful if falls short of expectation.
2) Can't really build a long term future around a player without a long term future! Being the hub of the team you are then left rebuilding your core again in 2 or 3 years. That said, as per the positive we might already be lining up the future and Rakitic would be like a quality player/ coach.
On balance I can actually see some real positives. The real negativity comes from it being another high risk move in the mold of Schweinsteiger, Sanchez, Falcao.
It's easy to look at positives and see why it could work out, but if it doesn't you also have to consider the impact...no resale value, no loan value, no opportunity to improve/ develop.
The biggest question has to come from why Barcelona would consider selling if they believed he still had plenty to offer.