Barça beat Rayo to end a dismal season. But the match had previously been turned into a nuisance thanks to the dark side of the club, which leaked days ago to the media that president Laporta had decided to dismiss Xavi without telling the interested party. The maneuver, inappropriate for the club’s supposed greatness, replicates the treatment meted out to Ronald Koeman, another legend of Barcelona fans who was treated to unnecessary agony.
The official version, not the dark part, assures that the final meeting between president and coach is postponed until next Monday to respect the final of the Women’s Champions League, a touch of humor if you take into account that in this club the calm and discretion are not included in the statutes. In a week, Laporta has time to close the new coach or to renew Xavi for three seasons. The second option is humor. The first is more likely. Although where Laporta will get the money to settle Xavi and his staff and to pay the substitute and his corresponding requests is a mystery.
This new episode vulgarizes a Barça that lately has only been saved by La Masia, a separate women’s team.
Because the current season, in addition to seeing little football and a stagnant and unattractive team, has served to confirm that the club is going through a severe crisis that goes beyond the continuity or not of its current coach. In fact, the dance of technicians in recent times (three in three years) describes the instability of a Barcelona that has always linked its moments of splendor with the durability and coverage of its leaders, be they Cruyff, Guardiola, Luis Enrique or Above all, Messi, today in Miami by the way (third myth eliminated). The depression, therefore, is not only sporting but also has institutional reach, and despite not starting with Laporta (his predecessor Bartomeu was a calamity in the second half of his mandate) it is hitting rock bottom with the current president, whose antiquated sheet route has had the adaptability of a scroll underwater.
The situation is of such severity that it requires a view not tainted by isms, one of the endemic evils of Barcelonaism (the truly important ism) whose respective acolytes have wasted time with extremely boring battles, diverting their gaze from what is essential, which It consisted of safeguarding an entity admired for its uniqueness: it has powerful identity roots, it belongs to its members, it promotes good football and it is extraordinarily multi-sports.
So busy were the factions arguing with each other that the last three presidents, so supposedly different, were plagued by the same evils, call him André Cury or Enríquez Negreira, letting the ugliness spread, eroding a now tarnished reputation.
The panorama is what it is. Financially the club is sustained, no one knows how. Once the effect of the levers has been exhausted and the Barça Media operation has failed, the club cannot currently meet the budget and is already considering requesting a new loan that could reach 100 million euros, as reported by Manel Pérez in this newspaper. With Laporta in charge, there is no longer talk of signing but of registering, a semantic shift that defines the anvil in the form of debt that prevents light walking. The president, advised by a dwindling and exotic group of advisors, has let all gray matter escape or has directly expelled it, erasing any hint of the structure that would correspond to a large club with such a crisis.
Xavi, a myth as a footballer who has not been able to make his team play the way he did, creating great frustration among Barcelona fans, managed to win the League in his second season, but he did not know how to use the strength that this gave him to retain Mateu Alemany and Jordi Cruyff, competent executives who protected him, nor to prevent goals from being scored from above, were they João Félix or Vitor Roque, elements that he never considered priorities. His collegiality with the president avoided conflicts, but he undermined his authority.
There are times when you have to stand up and enter into conflict. This summer’s buying and selling operations will go through a restaurant tablecloth rather than an office in the sports city.
It is difficult to know what the mood and opinion of Barça members are. The transfer to the Montjuïc stadium does not allow clear images to be taken. In the opposition, between stealthy and hesitant, a change in strategy can be seen. The motion of censure is not contemplated because there are no home games to call it and because without partners in the stadium there are no reliable polls.
What is the change then? For the first time, and given the panorama, they believe that Laporta’s mandate may fall on its own.
