Off the pitch, it’s hard to understand what FC Barcelona is playing. Beyond beating Real Madrid –not even the miraculous water of the Murs!–, the current situation of the club is disconcerting and even surreal, so that if today someone were to spread the hoax that Hristo Stoichkov is returning to reinforce the bands, nobody would care. I would call insane.
The ongoing negotiations about a possible return of Leo Messi to the discipline of the club –note: it is a cliché– are plausible despite unfortunate precedents. Nor is it a matter of charging luck against Barça: most of the legendary players have left through the back door. Di Stéfano left the white house in a bad way with the Bernabéu, Kubala was whistled when he signed for Espanyol, a club that, in turn, did not know how to fire Tamudo. These are not times of loyalty.
Neither Leo Messi –see burofax– nor FC Barcelona –the campechano “this is fixed with a barbecue”– knew how to find the precise words to live up to the end of an exceptional relationship, which began with the signature on a napkin and ended with the culé joy of seeing Leo Messi lifting the World Cup in Qatar.
Return, with a withered forehead…? According and how. Going back in any way, to the roast with potatoes and hair to the sea, no. And not, precisely, for the love professed and for the memory of the good times. Protocol is not appropriate, authenticity is needed…
Would Messi add to this team? Without a doubt, but without traps to the solitary. The club has a coach, and a coach should be given stripes (or fired). If someone should have the last word, that is Xavi Hernández, a star who knew how to leave on time. The day he responds to the dilemma – without clichés – we will be able to give our opinion on the rest. I doubt, alas, that it is so.
Would Messi accept a role other than bossy, on and off the pitch? After so many years, I’m still not sure Messi is humble enough to fit into his new, less stellar place, on and off the pitch.
From the board of directors, everything can be expected, especially an exit for peteneras: Messi is another lever, the sale of shirts, a blow on the table of self-esteem. The temptation to have a golden fuse is great, someone to whistle at or argue about to prevent criticism from going to the box. Everything, subject to the handling of the Enríquez Negreira scandal and the possible punishment of UEFA. An issue that will not clear up this silence in which FC Barcelona, ??Francisco Franco school has settled (let the problems rot).
And, above all, don’t screw it up again, they are already and we are older.
