Doubting the survival instinct of Josep Maria Bartomeu, at least, would have been completely counterproductive.

There were too many crises that the Barcelona president had to endure. The mass escapes in a board of directors now packed with applauders. A Barçagate that is still in court. And, above all, those decisions made regarding that first football team that went from the cardboard of the trident and the triplet that won the elections to the historic embarrassment to which Bayern submitted (8-2). But Bartomeu did not resign that cold Lisbon Friday night. Nor on the weekend. Nor, of course, did he do it this Monday before his faithful. There was no more than to use one of his last conjuring tricks and sell an electoral advance in the face of the disturbing silence of Leo Messi. Of course, with a good alibi before the fans. Ronald Koeman, the Wembley hero, an icon who is expected to end the old guard of the house, is the one chosen to relieve the fired Quique Setién.

The Barcelona Magna Carta indicates that the elections in the year of the end of the mandate must be held between March 15 and June 15. And Barcelona announced that the elections will be held precisely in March. But this does not mean that Bartomeu's board has to leave the club after said vote. He will not do so until June 30, when he has been able to finish his term . Had he chosen a date prior to the aforementioned March 15 for the elections, Bartomeu would have had to resign and a management board would have been responsible for calling the polls within a period of three months.

Bartomeu's strategy makes sense. First, because it will be he and not another board who will bring before the delegates so much the tricky economic closure of the Covid, where 200 million in income have been lost. With the latent danger that those accounts could be rejected. Also, the Bartomeu government will have time to balance the economic balance of his six years in office -being the risk of having to guarantee-, in addition to the possibility of settling with Goldman Sachs, through a loan of 800 million euros, the financing from Espai Barça. Pharaonic work that will pass into the hands of the next directive.

Bartomeu hopes that the arrival of a man with a mammoth personality from Ronald Koeman will allow him to leave the volcano for a time . The 57-year-old Dutchman, who underwent catheterization last March, is resolving the contract that joins him to the Dutch team despite having included an exit clause to Barcelona.

The Dutch federation hoped that Koeman would be the one to lead his team at Euro 2021, postponed this year due to the pandemic. But the former central defender, given the existing doubts around the tournament and after he already rejected the Barça offer last January -after Xavi Hernández's refusal to relieve Valverde- , is not willing to let another train pass.

One of the great reasons why Bartomeu has opted for the Dutch coach, beyond the social rejection of Mauricio Pochettino, is because of Koeman's foreseeable availability to open the dressing room windows . Several have been the managers who have recalled how the coach, after a month as Valencia coach, set aside three emblems such as Cañizares, Albelda and Angulo. None of the three returned to training alongside their teammates until Koeman was fired. Of course, after winning the Copa del Rey.

The former defensive foreman of Cruyff's Dream Team will have before him the difficult task of finishing the backbone of the team after years in which the Barça government was a wax statue. He prioritized renovations at the price of gold while ignoring regeneration and the power acquired by footballers. Koeman must now take sides against capitostes like Jordi Alba, Gerard Piqué, Sergio Busquets and Luis Suárez , all of them still with juicy contracts and over thirty.

It remains to be seen, yes, what position Leo Messi will take. Reluctant to sign a new renewal with the Bartomeu board, the Argentine forward has not yet made a decision regarding his future. In Barcelona they remember that their clause is 700 million euros, which makes an immediate escape difficult . But Bartomeu is aware that he runs the risk of being the president who led the Argentine's departure, who as of next January will be able to negotiate his future with another club with total freedom. The Argentine's salary, which is around 70 million euros gross per season, takes away the sleep of the rectors of the entity.

Messi's silence is more worrying than the scream.

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