5 most shocking decisions taken by Barcelona in the last decade

#3 The signing of Paulinho

Paulinho was a shock signing for Barcelona

For decades, Barcelona have achieved a trademark of playing intricate possession based football, with their players (mostly La Masia graduates) having this style inbuilt in their DNA.

Style and technique were emphasized over other attributes like speed and physique, with the result being that most of Barcelona's players were on the small side, but devastatingly brilliant with the ball at their feet.

The golden age of this philosophy came in the middle of the last decade when Barcelona conquered all before them, largely on the back of technically gifted midfielders.

It is in keeping in line with this tradition that it came as a major shock when the club expressed interest in signing Brazilian international Paulinho from Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande, much less for the princely sum of £40m.

Paulinho was the antithesis to everything a Barcelona midfielder is supposed to be, as he favored strength over guile, and was the quintessential definition of a powerhouse midfielder.

He had earlier spent three largely uninspiring years in England with Tottenham before his move to China, which is why it came as a surprise to many when Barcelona signed him up.

Even though Paulinho went on to silence his critics with his somewhat impressive performance for Barca, the fact that the club decided to loan him out after just a season and went on to sign another similar midfielder (albeit on a higher level) in Arturo Vidal only served to further confound the mystery as to why he was signed in the first place.