It’s pretty much standard practice at this point for Barcelona to make a high-priced attacking signing that most people think is gross overpay and bound to be on “worst of” transfer listicles for the next decade, because they’ve done it time and time again over the last several years.
So when Barcelona decided to throw more than 60 million euros at Dani Olmo this summer and basically force other outgoings in order to even afford his registration, the collective eyerolling began, including from actual Barcelona supporters themselves.
The thing about Barcelona is they do sign talented attacking players, and Olmo at 60 million euros would be worth it for so many teams. But it was like, look, Barcelona have weaknesses on the left wing, the No. 6, and a few other places. So why spend so much money on an attacking midfielder when that is literally the strongest position in the squad?
Furthermore, by signing Olmo, Barcelona guaranteed that they wouldn’t be able to sign any other potential squad upgrades because of all the money they would have tied up in an Olmo transfer.
So the vast criticism of the Olmo transfer from the masses was justified. But it was wrong. It was very wrong. It was so wrong that it missed the point entirely. And shame on me for following the masses despite having watched Olmo closely in the Bundesliga because of my ritualistic obsession with watching more Bundesliga matches than anyone not named Derek Rae.
The best way to explain this is to point to Olmo’s performance for Barcelona against Real Valladolid. And you can laugh it off by saying, “Well, it’s just Valladolid,” but tell that to Kylian Mbappe, whose transfer to Real Madrid just about nobody criticized at the time. These gritty LaLiga teams are tough enough to stump Real Madrid, but not tough enough for Barcelona, Olmo, and the Hansi Flick machine.
Olmo and Barca put up 7 on Valladolid in a 7-0 win – the kind of win Hansi Flick made look routine at Bayern Munich…or that Barcelona themselves used to make look routine in the “MSN” era.
And the crazy thing is Barcelona don’t have a current starting attacker who is even a quarter as good as any of the starters in that MSN trio. It doesn’t matter. They have a team, they have a structure, they have fluidity, they have ideas, and, most of all, they have brains.
That’s the thing about Spanish football. It has always been ruled by the players with the best brains, and Olmo is a chess grandmaster compared to most. He scored once against Valladolid on his own and probably could have scored three with better luck.
Olmo is an elegant, intelligent player whom Flick saw firsthand at RB Leipzig. He could have probably put up better numbers at Leipzig if he were more selfish, and, again, I need to go pray to the shrine of Mourinho (it’s in his own house, for the record) for forgiveness after being so fixated on goals and assists numbers like I was some sort of possessed Sorare gambler.
If you look at Olmo’s per 90 statistics, they are insane. The guy is averaging 1.4 goals, 2.1 key passes, and 4.2 dribbles completed per 90. Insane. Yeah, it’s a small sample size, but, counterpoint, he literally just showed up in Barcelona. He and his teammates are only going to get even better together.
I remember a few weeks ago I waffled about how Olmo isn’t dynamic enough to materially upgrade or be any different than what Barcelona already has. It turns out that was a load of garbage, too, because Olmo proves that you don’t need to be a track star to effectively dribble past opponents.
Heck, Ousmane Dembele is the most agile player in the world, and he doesn’t triple the number of his successful to unsuccessful dribbles like Olmo. Again, thinking fast beats running fast, and playing smart beats swirling around in a circle like Antony (how does he not have a washing machine endorsement deal?)
Barcelona and Hansi Flick have been playing Shaolin soccer, while Carlo Ancelotti is busy playing tetris, wasting a squad that is 10 times more talented than Barca’s. Why? Because, again, being smart wins.
Flick is smart. Barcelona are, gasp, smart after years of being run into the ground by clowns like Ronald Koeman and [redacted]. And Olmo is a part of that grand plan, the man in the middle who opens up play for others, finds space where it doesn’t exist, and knows how to change the tempo of the game.
Olmo was trained at La Masia. He stands out in big competitions like the Champions League and the Euros. And on a team that shares his playing style and mentality, he can truly shine to his fullest, showing that the price tag is more than the stats and the numbers are only a reflection of circumstances we must analyze, lest we become slaves to data points. In other words, trust your eyes and ball knowledge like Mr. Flick, leave the stat-mongering to X.com engagement farms.
