Let's all laugh at Spain

[Oly Francis]

It can easily be argued it’s a question of utilisation and supplementary components/others to facilitate his game; what he does, he’s already one of the best in the world at, and I don’t think that’d be laughed out of any discussion, tbh. His market value isn’t just potential as, if you’re a possession-based side, he’s obviously going to be the jewel in the crown kind of player.

I’m less sure about Gavi and other players coming up through Spain’s ranks, but Pedri looks like a different class of player to me personally - in the right categorisation, he’s top percentile in the game. Obviously, if you want a more rounded midfielder, you’re going to call for a different kind of midfielder, a Kimmich or whatever, but a ball retentive one? Pedri’s going to be one of the first names to roll off the tongue because he is superb at those aspects of midfield play.

I really like Pedri but it's hard to claim he's already one of the best in the world at anything considering he only consistantly showed that in La Liga. It's likely he isn't helped by his coaches who seem to reduce his freedom on the pitch but the truth is, since he's a starter for Barcelona, he (and his team) got absolutely bullied by PSG at Camp nou in 2021, lost twice in the next CL before he got injured, was nowhere to be found at Camp Nou against Eintracht Frankfurt in C3, then was far from great this season in the CL, especially in the 2nd game against Inter or Bayern.

I do agree that pretty often, some of his teamates are worse and he's a very talented player but he's one of the common denominator of 2 very dysfunctionnal and underwhelming teams. Unlike Gavi, I do see in him a potential top player though.