Accustomed to being a reasonably victimizing club, Barcelona won the admiration of the world the day it became a team admired for its anticipation, unquestionable since it managed to revolve its life around the uncomplexed Johan Cruyff. The merit consisted of being one step ahead of the others, especially in strategic decisions, those that referred to the game, expressed in a very defined style, and also those that affected the trade of the Barça brand, few so symbolic as your agreement with Unicef. No figure better personified the Barça innovation than Guardiola by culer, by representative of the Masia and by Apostle of Cruyff.
Guardiola left the Camp Nou at the wrong time, like Zubizarreta, not to mention Valverde’s controversial goodbye or the surrender of the irreducible Luis Enrique. Most of the decisions have been taken extemporaneously, both on the bench, where Tito Vilanova, Tata Martino, Quique Setién and Koeman have also passed, and in the box, which has seen Rosell, Bartomeu and two parade presidents of the management committee such as Adell and Tusquets. Barcelona stopped being innovative to become reactive until it tried to recover the lost years with the return of Laporta. The electoral slogan was to return to paradise with a banner hanging at the Bernabéu.
Laporta, however, has also surprisingly let the clock run while Barça was consumed to the point that a measure as consequential as that of dismissing Koeman, defeated by his own work, has generated wear that is not easy to assume in the Camp Nou. The president has played with the outgoing coach and also with the incoming coach simply because he tries to metabolize Cruyffism in Cruyff’s absence without realizing that Cruyff’s genius consisted in disagreeing with Cruyff. “Cruyff would never have settled for just being a cruyffista,” explains who knew him best from amazement, than submission, as is the writer Sergi Pàmies.
Laporta has hesitated and took so long that right now it is not known if he is firmly betting on Xavi or has given up in the same way that Cruyff accepted Guardiola when he could not convince Van Basten. So now it is up to the president to create the best conditions to favor Xavi’s success after assuming that he is the meeting point for the majority of Barcelona families due to his past as a player and captain of the best Barça.
Xavi’s illusion is the same that Koeman showed when he accepted the leadership of the Barça team after 2-8 in Lisbon. The Dutchman has been a victim of his defects and also of the helplessness of the Camp Nou. No club devours its idols like Barcelona. Nor has there been an exception with Koeman. The Wembley hero was fired on a plane just as the Dream Team captain was discharged in a planter at Athens airport after the painful fall to Milan.
Zubizarreta left Barça untimely. Koeman has not played well either. And more untimely was Messi’s departure. The Barça figures deserved better treatment, more respect and dignity, and therefore it is convenient for Laporta to activate his memory not only to remember how to win but also to avoid defeat on the pitch and in the Camp Nou offices. Now it is up to him to attend Xavi and channel his enthusiasm in a very delicate moment because it is not only about changing the routine of the game but the spoiled life in the locker room, in need of a renewal of leadership since Messi was dispensed with.
Cruyff assured that being a Barcelona coach meant dedicating 60% of the time to battles with the board, with the press “and with all that which is disgusting”, such as the environment, and “the remaining 40% to enjoy the game”, an appreciation that did not extrapolate to Ajax.
The task of the future technician will require the decisive support of the president, who has precisely reserved the role of sports actor after the box has been protected from the hands of the guarantors and Ferran Reverter. The partner perishes resigned and trusts the CEO no matter how much doubts he may have about the intentions of Goldman Sachs. The money wheel is only activated, however, with the ball, so that economists will need athletes and especially Xavi’s ingenuity.
Laporta can no longer improvise or speculate more precisely one year after Bartomeu’s resignation. A lost time in which Barcelona, lacking in authority and credibility, has been in tow in the League and in the Champions League. The club has been undercapitalized so much soccer, after exporting the Barça style, that now it needs to recover those who are supposed to know the potion like Xavi.
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