It isn't controversial to say that Martin Montoya's departure from Barcelona for Internazionale on Friday passed with minimal fuss.
The shadow of Dani Alves has blocked the younger right-back's path to the Blaugrana first 11 for a couple of years now, and when a reunion with his old Barca B boss Luis Enrique still wasn't enough to push him up the club's pecking order, it felt like the final nail in the player's coffin had been hammered home.
Montoya's tale is a cautionary but familiar one, reminding us all that a young player's future is never set in stone. Called up to the senior Spain squad some three years before his contemporary Dani Carvajal, it was once taken as a given that the Catalan would quickly establish himself at both club and international level. A strong display as a starter in the 2012 Copa del Rey final only further heightened expectations. Yet three years later, the defender has left Barcelona after failing to even make the game-day squad on 36 occasions last season.
His story is not a particularly unique one at Barca; it is part of a trend. Montoya first forged his reputation when motoring up and down the right flank in Luis Enrique's thrilling Barca B team, a side that finished third in the 2010-11 Liga Adelante. That generation of players was marked as a golden one, a club-record 71 points in the Spanish second tier suggesting that a large concentration would make it as first-team stars.
The roll call included Montoya as well as Marc Bartra, Sergi Roberto, Marc Muniesa, Andreu Fontas, Jonathan dos Santos and Oriol Romeu. Thiago Alcantara was also a presence, but had already started to play and train regularly with the seniors by the time Barca B made their playoff spot finish. He was expected to be the first of many to make the step up.
Thiago -- who now regularly starts for one of the world's top clubs in Bayern Munich -- proved to be the exception rather than the rule, however. While all of the above players went on to make their first-team debuts, none have managed to establish themselves in the Barca starting 11, and many have since left the club upon realising that a regular starting spot wouldn't come to pass.
The first warning that the gun had been jumped came with Muniesa and Fontas, who both suffered significant injuries at the worst possible time, just as Barcelona needed reinforcements at centre-back. Upon recovering from their respective spells out, they found the club had moved on: Javier Mascherano and even Adriano were considered more viable central defenders. Muniesa left for Stoke City on a free transfer in 2013, while Fontas joined Celta Vigo that same year. While both have managed to play fairly regularly at mid-level clubs, it's a far cry from the hopes of becoming the next Carles Puyol or Gerard Pique that they once held -- seemingly realistically.
Romeu was quicker to get itchy feet, and made a much bigger move when Chelsea signed him in 2011. Barca's insistence in adding a buy-back clause to the deal highlighted their high expectations for a player once considered the best back up to Sergio Busquets on offer. The midfielder started brightly in London, but the departure of Andre Villas-Boas curbed his progression, and in what is something of a recurring theme with his classmates, a knee injury worsened matters. He has just completed a second successive year away from Chelsea on loan, spending a season at Stuttgart. Barcelona let their buy-back option expire -- few complained.
Fellow 2010-11 Barca B midfielder Dos Santos is also plying his trade elsewhere now, signing for Villarreal in the summer of 2014 after spending a season doing nothing with the Blaugrana in the style of Montoya. Things have picked up for the Mexican since he moved to El Madrigal. Coach Marcelino showed that Dos Santos can indeed be effective for a decent side when used correctly, but it still seems unlikely that he will ever go on to play for one of the top five teams in the world as was hoped in his youth.
Sergi Roberto was once considered even more likely than Dos Santos to establish himself at the Camp Nou, yet he too continues to struggle uphill with slim chances of success. An exciting, box-to-box midfielder in his younger days who had an eye for goal and the timing to match, his only remaining hope of avoiding the Barca cut is to accept conversion to the midfield pivot's role, the still difficult task of finding suitable cover for Busquets, meaning there could be a small window of opportunity open to his fellow academy graduate.
Even Bartra, the member of the generation with perhaps the most factors working in his favour, is still not guaranteed a place in his club's first 11. Now a Spain regular, he has talent, experience, and Barcelona schooling, yet has to compete with four central defenders for minutes next season, after rarely being trusted by Luis Enrique when competing with three the season before. A diehard Barca supporter, the young centre-back has opted to turn down significant offers from big clubs in two consecutive transfer windows with the aim of fighting for his spot, but as determined as he may be, the odds of succeeding are not particularly favourable if the fates of his old teammates from the supposed golden generation are anything to go by.
The stories of Montoya, Dos Santos, Muniesa and the other departed members of the 2010-11 Barca B team isn't necessarily one of failure on the part of the players. All are making a living from professional football at a decent level, so they have achieved more than most aspiring academy stars ever manage.
What it does tell us, however, is that there is no such thing as a certainty when it comes to predicting where a young talent will be in two or three years, regardless of how complete a package the player seems to be. Luck, injuries, and the degree of faith invested in them by their parent club all play a big part. When it comes to that question of faith, it is perhaps worth asking if Barcelona could have done more to ensure a greater return from the 2011 group. Will any make the cut at all?