• Defeat. Barcelona's nightmare in Granada
  • Valverde. "I am responsible"

Arturo Vidal , who had broken into Los Cármenes half an hour from the end with the same grace as Cid Campeador, that is, chewing on his own heart, tried a game change. The foot must have been twisted, because the ball went to the stands. Then he took his hand for a walk in the area and that had no choice. The episodic interventions of the Chilean, in fact, translated a single reality. This is the saddest Barcelona of the decade .

Whether or not nostalgia is a shortcut to the death row, nothing fits into a club ruled by a bicefalia that is not supported -directive and costumes- ; that, while seducing Carles Puyol , he crushes his sports directors without attending any long-term project - four in four seasons-; which is uncomfortable even for leaders who flee when they sense the danger - four vice presidents have resigned since 2015-; and that 599 million euros in salary and amortization are invested in its first workforce. More than anyone. "We have the best squad in the world, and players charge what they have to charge," the executives who square the budget defend themselves.

Ernesto Valverde, the ideal shield for Bartomeu, protected by Messi at the end of last season, is already leading in the spirit of the last time . Aware that Villarreal and Getafe can take the scythe with them, however much the president insists on maintaining a calm that is not such. The technician has even lost the fear of decisions that not so long ago he would never have taken. Especially, to carry the responsibility of the team on the backs of a 16 year old boy, Ansu Fati .

Messi's Arctic relationship with Griezmann

The problem is that the players have stopped knocking on the door. Luis Suarez , the striker who has not scored away from home in the Champions League for four years, leaves his life in duels that he rarely wins. And Griezmann , hired because the foremen saw him as an alternative to the Uruguayan in the center forward position, wonders from his jail in the band what he paints in all this. Nor does his Arctic relationship with Messi, who dreamed of seeing Neymar at the French box office, help .

The goals against it fit without remedy, with Piqué sure that there is no place more secure than his, and Umtiti, the same who admitted without any shame that he played the World Cup with the knee made some foxes after renewing his contract, seeing Life pass lying on the stretcher . Barcelona is, together with Espanyol and Betis, who has received the most in the League (nine).

The midfielders, one day Busquets - increasingly uncomfortable with their substitutions - , one day Arthur , and another Sergi Roberto partnering with Rakitic , take turns with no apparent sense around poor De Jong . The Dutchman is in danger of chaos also taking him ahead.

A president obsessed with enduring

Bartomeu went from being the smiling Sancho Panza of Sandro Rosell to megalomaniac president of Barcelona . "Minorities do not send," said Pharaoh Josep Lluís Núñez. And to this he set, regardless of the fact that there is no absolutism fiercer than that of a dressing room turned into a dressing room . Barcelona did not lose the north in Granada, where it confirmed its worst start to the league in the last 25 years. He did it much earlier, when he believed that Messi's glow would blind the unbelievers. Now, simply manage the consequences.

Valverde remains for now, at the risk of dragging the president when there is still more than a year and a half left until the end of his term. Bartomeu, obsessed with reissuing the triple crown of 2005, sensed the path with which he should endure in the imaginary. More cards, fit or not. More titles, alibi without equal in this football in which metal is actually cardboard stone. More Messi, but offering a way of escape at zero cost in case the Argentine was fed up .

Bartomeu never wondered why the Leagues stopped celebrating . Why winning at the Bernabéu was no longer enough. Why the landslides in Europe - Paris, Turin, Rome, Liverpool - became a routine transferred to the interwar battles of Pamplona or Granada. Or why Valverde, despite the worrying signals emitted by a happy wardrobe in anarchy, should be the one who deluded the fans with a new project. Even knowing that, after what happened in the last two Champions, any slip would open Pandora's Box again.

The power of costumes

But the president knew what had to be done after the consultations made to the capitostes of the first team. Footballers who took flights one day after being injured or who prioritized the Copa América to the Copa del Rey -Luis Suarez-, or who gave rope to their businesses at the expense of constant transoceanic trips -Piqué-. Valverde did not bother and let him do, so he must continue. As much as some soccer player later assumed on the stage that the team was out of hand .

Bartomeu did not fulfill, yes, with his other promise, to hire Neymar Jr. The club, beyond the transfer figure - around 200 million euros - could not assume a salary of 30 million that would have exceeded the wage bill It was marketed anyway with its own players, who felt pieces of cattle. Rakitic was the first holder of this campaign in Los Cármenes. It was a spectrum .

The comedy days concluded in the only possible way, with Neymar spending the night in Paris and Messi wondering if all this time he had been deceived .

Although, in this football, there may not be more precious than the lie.

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  • sports
  • football
  • FC Barcelona
  • First division
  • Champions League
  • Ansu Fati
  • Arturo vidal
  • Ernesto Valverde
  • Luis Suarez

Chicken in leather, that beautiful conjunction

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