They are smarter, since Barcelona is club that is probably run by school boys who by the looks of it don't watch too much football.
We're run by idiots, but our dof has some brilliant mids in there, they've gotten Umtiti, Rakitic and Arthur have proven to be big deals for the money they costed, Lenglet is solid, Paulinho and Vidal are useful players and not overprized (maybe Paulinho on his arrival, but he proved he was worht it), the Mina deal...
Our problem comes when we sign players from high profiles, we're missing all of those signings lately, Coutinho, Andre Gomes, Alcacer, Arda Turan... if we let our dof work their way without members of the board messing with our transfers we'd be all good.
As long as I remember, we always have great players but a solid core of 2nd tier players it's what drives us to success, Cocu, Hesp, Marquez, Edmilson, Van Bommel, Giuly, Larsson, Gio, Belletti... we need back that kind of players to cover spots when our youth ranks fail to produce top talent. Our borderline marquee signings (ahem... Saviola, Riquelme...) always seem to fai.