FC Barcelona and His Holiness the Dalai Lama have had better days. What is happening to them is unusual: Xavi Hernández urges the fans to be happy, very happy, because they don’t win the League every year – tell those of us who grew up during the Blaugrana lead years! – and Tenzin Gyatso – better known as the Dalai – he asks a boy, as if nothing, to lick his tongue (this is what Francesc does and Crema Troia, the Palmar de Troia and Casa d’a Troya, Galician cuisine in the heart of Madrid).
We can all have a bad day; the problem is that FC Barcelona has already chained two – beaten in the Cup and the first team unable to score a goal at home to Girona FC – in the context of a general despondency, very understandable due to the lack of faith in a tomorrow better
Hearing the manager, Xavi Hernández, asking for joy because the League is won reminds me of those political leaders who brag on election nights in front of militants who were waiting for power. If there is a spontaneous feeling that you either have or don’t have, it is, precisely, joy.
No one better than a Barcelona fan to know what a League means, especially the average member, of respectable age, in whose memory there are five years of drought and last-minute misfortunes that prevented them from lifting the regularity championship. So, how is this collective reluctance for the imminent achievement of a degree to be explained – it is not all forgetfulness? I am one of those who think that the League is decided. It must be because on Saturday I was in the north end of the Bernabéu…
The reasons are three, put to opinion.
first The fan has not internalized how bad FC Barcelona is, including in the sporting field. What’s there is what’s there and it’s not a powerful template. The great merit – worthy of celebration – is that, with the most mediocre attack of all the Leagues contested by the club, the team can sing victory. It is difficult for the club to celebrate defensive strength – and even less to accept it as a philosophy -, a great virtue but with a lot of bad press after the Messi era.
two Real Madrid are still alive in the Champions League and no one is taking their elimination for granted despite a hellish draw. If they fall, Xavi will be able to spare the calls for joy: it will appear spontaneously. The mood will change and he will be the first to receive pats on the back.
third As an institution, Barça is a wasteland. It has no leadership, is mortgaged and lives pending a probable European exclusion. Ask for joy? The fans did enough on Monday by not setting up a monumental boo; perhaps another symptom of discouragement. And what would a handkerchief have changed?
