No one has seen him around him, but many perceive his existence; he has been playing Barcelona games for more than three decades. Serving as motivation for the locker room, crushing the occasional player, being used as a smoke screen and even blowing so that the ball goes in or not. Or so say those who suffer from it or feel like victims. The last one was Xavi Hernández, after struggling to come back against Alavés at home.
The environment always returns. Where the external enemy or the black hand does not reach, he appears in his different forms. From the institutional noise, the roar of the stadium, the political interests, to the -isms of those in power and the opposition and, of course, the messenger, the press. “To the parrot, we are not that bad. “Don’t let them fool you,” said Joan Laporta before the penyistas in April 2008. A month later he confirmed that Guardiola would replace Rijkaard.
This harmful environment has the curious ability to make an appearance at delicate moments. This was how it was on April 1, 1992 when Johan Cruyff invented the concept in Prague after losing 1-0 against Slavia. The draw qualified Barça for the final at Wembley but, without Stoichkov, who was suspended, he was unable to beat Petr Kouba.
It was the second dry game for the dream team, immersed in a neck-to-neck with Madrid for the League. The Blaugrana came from not going beyond 0-0 in Pamplona. The defeat in Prague turned the duel that closed the group against Benfica into a true semi-final, which was won.
Cruyff, who already had tensions with President Núñez, did not like that the expedition’s directors were planning the trip to London. The coach did not shut up in the press room. “There is an environment that influences and if it were not like that, Barcelona would win many more titles. The environment has an impact on my men. If things are not fixed, we will end up badly. We have a straight line in the locker room, something that does not happen in the entire club,” he threw his dart.
The environment is here to stay. It is resorted to cyclically. Sometimes to avoid talking about football, other times to emphasize aesthetic aspects. Robson suffered it, whistled despite winning 8-0 against Logroñés. Or Valverde, fired in 2020 in a Super Cup.
Recently, José Manuel Lázaro, former press officer of Barcelona, ??explained on RAC1 the experience he lived alongside Tata Martino in September 2013. The coach learned that he had lost his father minutes before a Champions League press conference but he did not He wanted the news to be known.
–We won the game and then I will travel to Buenos Aires – Tata proposed as a solution.
That’s how it was done. Barça beat Ajax 4-0 and Martino flew to his father’s funeral. He returned in time to sit on the Vallecas bench, where they won 0-4.
“I have come from burying my father and they are arguing that we have lost possession. “What is this?” He asked Lázaro the next day, seeing some approach. 200 games later, Rayo had more than 50% of the ball. “There is more debate because I am neither from the house nor Dutch,” he said in his next appearance.
Ten years later, Xavi’s next game – who was in that 2013-14 squad – will also be at Rayo, where, by the way, Koeman directed his last game in 2021 when Laporta decided to bet on Terrassa.
Xavi believes that the negative is always highlighted. He did not like that Gündogan’s words were magnified after the classic nor that the bad gestures of Lewandowski, whom he considers a leader, with Lamine Yamal, to whom he denied a greeting with 1-1, are now highlighted. “I have helped him and given him advice, even in this game. It is normal to say or shout something on the field. The whole situation doesn’t make sense,” the Pole complained when he arrived with his team.