Robert Fernandez went out to say: “After Verratti, we focused on Paulinho”. And therefore, we signed Paulinho.
Paulinho’s transfer caused the worst possible reaction by Barcelona fans worldwide. I read twitter feeds, Facebook feeds, Instagram comments, and if there was any platform in the world where Barcelona was being discussed I would be reading that one too. My eyes told me nothing different than what I already knew: No one wanted Paulinho.
As a matter of fact, no one outside the Barcelona offices truly wanted Paulinho. Well, there is one person who wanted the transfer to happen, and it was Paulinho himself.
Paulinho spent the summer discussing how big of a chance this is, how proud he is to be linked to the club and all that good stuff. Personally, all I ever thought about was: “Okay, you seem like a nice dedicated guy, but let’s not…”
Paulinho is a result of the board’s lack of options and incompetence. Barcelona fans were never as angry about a transfer because this one couldn’t have come at a worse time. Paulinho was announced right after we were obviously outplayed by Real Madrid. You know, the same Real Madrid that is currently the best team in the world. There is also that one incident where Barcelona lost its second best player and of course the fact that the club could not sign Verratti and the Dembele & Coutinho ‘news’ being too messy and unclear. The man really could not have come at a worse time.
Paulinho doesn’t help himself either. He is one of those guys who went to China. These are the players who will continue to be recognized as players who did not care about the glory as much as they cared about their bank account. What made it worse is that his reputation in the premier league does not help him either. It all looks fishy and unimpressive.
It all came full circle with Paulinho’s signing. The Brazilian became a symbol of the entire club’s failure, not just the board. How can you get people to love or take in a player that arrived in such a setting? It’s simple, you cannot.
Paulinho is a result of chaos, anger, and failure. Well, at least that’s how he looks like.
In reality, he is not any of this. He is just a player who received an offer to play at one of the most impressive clubs in the world and live in a gorgeous city. Also, he did not play a single game for the club yet. So, as much as everyone, including myself, does not trust the board’s decisions, a player should be evaluated based on his dedication to the club and what he actually achieves.
After Paulinho’s career became completely irrelevant by him moving to China, the world decided that this man deserves another chance in Europe and we are the club which gave him that chance. No, it was not a good decision, not even close. It was not good because there were countless better options. But, to say I know anything about Paulinho would be a huge lie.
As a matter of fact, I do not think anyone gave him any type of attention ever since he moved to China, and rightfully so. The details about Paulinho’s career there are so scarce that you will only find some irrelevant stats about him and a couple of articles which may not be exactly accurate at all. There is also that “he is alright for Brazil” statement which does not tell much either. This only indicates that no one really knows anything yet. Sometimes we sign far better players yet we also know that adapting to Barcelona is a task on its own and evaluating a transfer before the season even started seems a bit over the top.
Valverde will get him settled soon enough and he will play his heart out and only then will anything about Paulinho matter. His spell at Spurs does not matter, his effort for Brazil does not matter, whatever he did in China does not matter and why the board even thought about signing him does not matter.
The only thing that matters is that when Paulinho puts on an official match shirt and enters a match for FC Barcelona, he realises that he has the fans’ support and therefore should do the impossible to put the club back where it belongs.
He should have the fans’ support because this was never about him and this decision, regardless of its outcome, was never his own.
He should play his heart out because he plays for the greatest club in the world and in a season like this, we need every single player to be at his absolute best
