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For most of the last decade, Barcelona had one of the greatest midfielders in history, as the trio of Sergio Busquets, Andres Iniesta, and Xavi Hernandez held sway in the middle of the park for club and country, winning multiple tiles.
However, Iniesta's transfer to Vissel Kobe in Japan, and his decision to retire from international football after Spain's elimination from the just concluded World Cup means that of the three, only Sergio Busquets remains for both Barcelona and Spain.
A lot of names have been bandied about as potential signings for Barcelona in midfield, and the club has concluded deals for midfielders such as Brazilian Arthur from Gremio for £35.5m and Chilean international Arturo Vidal from Bayern Munich on a three year deal.
However, one name that has been constantly been linked to Barcelona is that of France international Adrien Rabiot.
Barcelona have made multiple enquiries for Adrien Rabiot, and iconic former Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez said the 23-year-old would be a perfect signing for Barcelona as he could play anywhere across the midfield. Rabiot himself reportedly turned down an offer of a contract extension at PSG, and with one year left on his current deal, the coast could be clear for Barcelona to land their man.
While Adrien Rabiot is somewhat suitable to Barca's playing pattern, there are a couple of drawbacks to Barcelona signing him. Here are three reasons why Barcelona should not sign the PSG midfielder.
#3 Disciplinary issues
The 23-year-old Rabiot, who has represented France across all levels from U16 to the senior side was unceremoniously dropped by coach Didier Deschamps from France's ultimately successful World Cup 23-man squad, being placed on the list of standbys instead.
Rabiot, however, refused to be placed on the standby list, withdrawing himself from consideration for the World Cup and refused to pick Didier Deschamps' phone call to explain the reason why.
Barcelona have long maintained a reputation of being 'more than a club', but controversies surrounding Neymar's transfer, dishonoring their long-standing history of not having shirt sponsors but for humanitarian causes by signing sponsorship deals with Qatar Airways (, despite the country's questionable human rights record), and more recently their unscrupulous purchase of Malcom have eroded much of the club's 'clean' image.
Barcelona have a reputation of producing players with good public records, rarely getting into the news for wrong reasons rather doing most of their talking on the field of play. Arturo Vidal was signed earlier in the transfer window, and the Chilean himself has a history of controversial moments in his career, so adding Rabiot would do little to boost Barcelona's aim of restoring its lost image.
#2 His limited skillset
Without a doubt, Adrien Rabiot is a good passer of the ball, with high completion rates, but most of his passes are usually short, diagonal and less risky passes that prioritize safety first other than offer any attacking threat.
He predominantly stays behind in PSG's attacking forays, sitting back while the likes of Veratti, Neymar, Mbappe and Cavani surge forward, evidenced by his low returns on goals (he has scored just 22 goals in 208 appearances across all competitions for PSG in seven seasons).
As Sergio Busquets has shown all through his career, a deep-lying defensive midfielder not posting high returns on goals is not too much of an issue, but what the World Cup winner boasts over Rabiot is his innate ability to dictate play and build-up play from the middle third and create goalscoring chances.
Rabiot if purchased will primarily be deployed as a holding midfielder, and it will be a near impossible task for him to displace Sergio Busquets, while Arthur's multi-functionality means he will also be referred to the one-dimensional Rabiot in Busquet's stead.
In other areas of midfield, Rabiot's lack of pace or ability to create space for himself means that he would still be behind the likes of Arturo Vidal, Rakitic, Malcom and Philippe Coutinho.
Rabiot is likely to command a fairly high transfer fee despite having just one year left on his contract (as Ligue 1 players don't have a buyout clause due to LFP rules) if purchased by Barcelona, and expending such amount on someone who doesn't bring anything different to Barcelona's team could be an exercise in futility.
#1 Inconsistency against big teams
PSG's utter dominance of Ligue 1 means that their players are very rarely tested in the league, and it is in the Champions League where they truly get assessed.
Adrien Rabiot has been accused of being inconsistent in PSG's biggest matches on the continent. He put up a midfield masterclass in the 4-0 demolition of Barcelona in the first leg of their round-of-16 Champions League clash two seasons ago, then followed that up with an absolutely lethargic performance in PSG's second leg capitulation against the same opponent three weeks later.
In PSG's biggest match of last season, Adrien Rabiot also posted a no-show over two legs despite scoring a goal, and came in for particular bashing due to his pathetic lack of effort in tracking back and going into tackles, which contributed to PSG's two-legged loss and elimination to Real Madrid.
Barcelona have underperformed in the Champions League in recent seasons, and after sustained domestic dominance, the club's aim would be to reverse its poor recent record of having been eliminated at the quarter-final stage in each of the last three editions of the UCL. A stat made more bitter by the fact that all three editions have been won by their arch-rivals Real Madrid.
Adrien Rabiot could contribute his fair share to continuing Barcelona's dominance in La Liga and the Copa Del Rey, but it is in Europe where their aspirations lie, and that is a stage where the multiple time Ligue 1 winner could find himself struggling as he has so often done in the past. Hence, it would be foolhardy for Barcelona to sign him, as it could prove counterproductive to their European aspirations.
