Among the collection of lies that have been spread in recent days by FC Barcelona, the most pathetic was the statement from its communications department (…) that nothing would be discussed about Xavi’s future until next Monday out of respect for the women’s team, that this Saturday the Champions League final will be played, from which it can be deduced that in addition to the propensity to deceive the staff, respect for the women’s team was a false alibi and, consequently, a fallacy on the shoulders of another.
FC Barcelona is a club born as a pyromaniac, so to imagine that it would last even 24 hours in a row without betraying the announced calm and discretion was naive. More so now when the throwing of knives between Laporta and Xavi and their respective entourages was worthy of a Turkish-Colombian soap opera with a bad ending.
It is curious, in football there is a popular phrase coined that appeals to old codes and is intended for those who act with sincerity and honesty. “I like it because it goes straight,” it is often said about this or that player, this or that coach, this or that president when it is deserved. Well, it is difficult to find someone in today’s Barça who honors that distant virtue.
At this level of hypocrisy, Xavi’s end was a matter of days but the haste in its outcome describes a club without direction or education. An unscheduled meeting full of tension, an official statement in the content of which not a single hint of complicity can be detected (as if the victim were a nobody and not one of their myths), and all after this week those who had to protect him, they negotiated behind his back while they whispered to him to wait until Monday, don’t worry, and then they would talk about everything.
Laporta dragging his feet, Deco and Bojan traveling to London to tie up Hansi Flick and the rest of the members of the sports commission, with the exception of Rafa Yuste, salivating at this ending and making people dwarf with their double speech (in front I hug you, behind you I tear into pieces) Brutus, the most mythical of conspirators. And Alejandro Echevarría surviving everything, as usual.
Let’s review what Laporta said a month ago, the day after that magical sushi in his penthouse on Diagonal: “The project is intact in terms of confidence and enthusiasm”; “I am not going to please those who want to blow everything up now for not having achieved the objectives” (this is a good one, hats off); “I am left with the confirmation that Xavi, as a coach, is an extraordinary person with a culé feeling that transmits enthusiasm, confidence and generosity”; “Barcelona fans should be proud of the coach they have”… All this was said by the president on April 25. He also spoke that day metaphorically of a flame still burning, without knowing that he himself, to honor a mandate characterized by a course that consists of not having it, would blow it out and extinguish it. Personal and institutional instability.
Xavi Hernández, whose season has been disappointing and for many worthy of a dismissal, is very upset with the ways. He always considered Laporta a friend and it is likely that from today they will no longer be one again. In any case, finding other shoulders on which to seek comfort will not be difficult. There are a few who preceded him. There is a pattern of behavior. From the authors of “Leo, come sign, we already have the contract” and “Ronald, you are our coach because we haven’t found another”, comes “Xavi, we’ll see each other on Monday and decide”.
Joan Laporta hits rock bottom in this his second and eventful mandate. Little of what he promised has been fulfilled. The club is worse socially, sportingly, economically and reputationally. Without the memory of who he was and how much he meant to Barcelona in the past he probably would no longer be sitting where he is.