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Over the years, FC Barcelona have made a name for themselves as a hub for the production and development of the best players in the world, with the club's La Masia academy having nurtured some of the best players to ever grace the football field.
Also, beyond the production of players, the club has gotten it right when it comes to making the right purchases, with greats like Romario, Johan Cruyff, Ronald Koeman, Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto'o, Ronaldo de Lima but to name a few having been brought into the club courtesy shrewd transfers.
These two factors combined means that a roll call of Barcelona's past and present players sounds like a who's who of football royalty, with few clubs able to match the calibre of players who have represented the club.
However, it has not always been smooth sailing for the Blaugrana, with the club having had their own fair share of flops.
Some of these castoffs came in the form of academy graduates who did not quite live up to expectations or signings who failed to deliver.
More often than not, some of these players get sold or loaned out to other clubs and they go on to shine at their new clubs, leaving many wondering what exactly went wrong at Barcelona. In this piece, we shall be highlighting four Barcelona rejects who have starred in Europe this season.
#4 Andre Gomes (Everton)
Andre Gomes made a name for himself in his native Portugal with Benfica whom he helped to a domestic double in the 2013/2014 season.
Having impressed during a loan spell with Valencia, the LaLiga outfit signed him on a permanent deal and he continued to impress with the Mestalla outfit, making 78 league appearances across two seasons.
The 26-year-old courted global attention when he played a starring role in helping Portugal win EURO 2016 and was the subject of a number of bids from a host of top clubs, before settling on Barcelona as his next destination.
His spell in Catalunya, however, went horribly off script, as the Portuguese international struggled for form and subsequently lost his place in his national team.
Things went so badly for Gomes that he looked nothing like the confident player he was at Valencia, making numerous errors, which concordantly led to him being the target of boos by the fanbase.
Reports later emanated that he was struggling with psychological issues as he found it hard to adapt to the increased demands at the club.
The revelations brought a lot of sympathy for him, but despite these, there was no visible improvement in his play and the harsh realities of professional football meant he had to be moved on.
Everton sought his services in the form of a season-long loan and Gomes has benefited from the change of environment, and has been one of the cornerstones of Marco Silva's midfield, making 25 appearances in the Premier League for the club, scoring one goal, which is a vast improvement on the 16 LaLiga appearances he made last season.
#3 Lucas Digne (Everton)
Another player whose Barcelona misery has been cut short by Everton is French international left-back Lucas Digne.
The 25-year-old was a PSG player for three years between 2013 and 2016, spending the 205/2016 season on loan at AS Roma, but was not a regular in the French capital which is why his arrival at Barcelona in 2016 was met with a lot of disbelief, not least because it cost the club the sum of €20.5m to purchase him.
Digne spent the majority of his time at Barcelona serving as an understudy to Jordi Alba, but on the few occasions when he did play, he looked horribly out of sorts and not in tune with the Barcelona pattern of play.
His two-year spell at Barcelona was immensely successful, as he won four major honours, but just like at PSG, he did not contribute too much to the success enjoyed by the Catalans
A transfer to Everton was agreed at the start of the season for £18m and Digne has been totally transformed, proving to be one of the cornerstones for The Toffees in the league, displacing long-term veteran and fan favourite Leighton Baines as the club's starting left-back.
So far this season, he has made 30 Premier League appearances, scoring three goals and creating four assists all of which are more than he managed across two seasons with Barcelona.
#2 Gerard Deulofeu (Watford)
Deulofeu joined the Barcelona youth ranks in 2003, aged just nine and progressed through the ranks until making his first team debut in 2012.
The sheer quality of players in Barcelona's attack during the club's Golden period meant that breaking into the first team was always going to be a herculean task, as the club had illustrious names like Lionel Messi, David Villa, Pedro Rodriguez at this time.
Deulofeu thus had to undertake a number of loan spells over the next few seasons, calling Everton, Sevilla and AC Milan home.
He finally returned to Barcelona in the summer of 2017 as the club had activated his buyback clause, but the same problems remained and the Spanish international could not convince the Barcelona hierarchy over his suitability to their plans.
Another loan transfer was announced to Watford in January 2018, with the transfer made permanent at the end of the season for a fee reportedly worth €13m.
This season, Deulofeu has been exquisite, scoring seven goals and assisting five from 25 Premier League matches to help Watford sit 10th on the standings while his best contribution undoubtedly came in the FA Cup semifinal against Wolves where he came off the bench to dramatically turn a 2-0 deficit around and send the Hornets through to the final.
#1 Paco Alcacer (Borussia Dortmund)
Having starred for six seasons with Valencia in LaLiga, Barcelona made the decision to sign Paco Alcacer for the sum of €30m on a five-year deal in 2016.
Barcelona's forward line at this point was unarguably the best in the world, as the much celebrated 'MSN' held sway at the Nou Camp, and as such, it was nearly impossible for anyone to break into the first 11.
Alcacer only managed 50 appearances in all competitions in two seasons at Barcelona most of which came off the bench, but he still managed to score 15 goals at a rather modest rate of 0.35 goals per game.
A loan transfer to Dortmund was made at the start of this season and the 25-year-old started life in the Bundesliga like a house on fire.
He impressively went on a scoring run which saw him score 10 goals from 10 shots on target to help Dortmund lead the charge in the Bundesliga and his form saw him recalled to the Spanish national team.
In total, he has scored 16 goals from 21 Bundesliga matches, hence it therefore came as no surprise when BVB signed him permanently in February in a deal worth €23m.
