FC Barcelona closes a blank season and the most discouraging thing is that it is sowing that 2024-2025 will be even worse, unless the reopening of the Camp Nou can be compared to a League of today or a Fairs Cup of yesterday. There is no good news nor is it expected.
The post-Messi era was anticipated to be complicated. His figure, surrounded by great secondary players, for years covered up any of the deficiencies of FC Barcelona, ??among which is, singularly, the ability to make fortunes – the transfer of Neymar, like in his day that of Luisito Suárez or Figo – and turn them into debt. Things about this club…
Since Leo Messi left Barça, and not through the front door, Barcelona fans don’t know what they want to be when they grow up. The bad thing is that he faced the future with the glories of the past: Joan Laporta in the presidency and Xavi on the bench despite his zero experience as a coach. The Pep Guardiola formula – or in the past that of Luis Aragonés, who went from player to coach of Atlético de Madrid in hours – was exceptional: the normal thing, at FC Barcelona and at Gratallops, is that a legend on the field is not, automatically, the ideal coach because at certain heights you can’t make mistakes. One, two, maybe, not three anymore…
The post-Messi era demanded humility and new faces. Blank slate. Realism in the accounts and realism on the playing field. These are not times for truths, but for post-truth and populism: what is white today, could be black tomorrow. Hence, Xavi could perfectly be Barça’s coach next season. The given word? Things from other times…
The environment and the fans also have their share of responsibility. FC Barcelona was League champion last season, but the first to devalue the success were not in Madrid, but at the Camp Nou. The team had a defensive and results-oriented profile, dimensions in which it shone: 20 goals conceded. A creditable figure. However, winning like this was distasteful, and the thesis predominated that this 2023-2024 season the team was obliged to play better in order, in logic – not necessarily football – to win titles again and offer a spectacle. Yes, a show it has given and is giving: about how not to do things.
Barça has conceded 43 goals, double that of a year ago, and is content with a runners-up finish. It doesn’t seem like a big deal compared to the 2022-2023 season, the one in which they won the League and threatened to rebuild without Messi as a result of sacrifice, defensive order and humility. Perhaps it is more exciting to fly Coloms, side b of ‘I want to and I can’t’.
