Depression and crisis looming over the Camp Nou
With the coronavirus crisis wreaking havoc across the world, most European football competitions have resumed. The "new normality" is especially depressing when you watch matches played in empty stadiums, with chants and cheers played from the ground speakers. Some of that atmosphere has unfortunately infected certain clubs, and most notably Fútbol Club Barcelona.
To be exact, this depression has been looming over the club ever since Pep Guardiola left it back in 2012. Tito Vilanova still had an amazing team at his disposal, but then Tata Martino failed to win a single title in the 2013-2014 season. The greatness and pride in the team were recovered for a few years with Luís Enrique and the great MSN trio up front, but the departure of Neymar three years ago was a turning point from which the club hasn't recovered.
There is no excuse for ruining a team which still has the best footballer on the planet in its ranks. All you needed to do as the board of directors was to surround Messi with the right kind of players who fit in the football culture which the team has developed at least since Johan Cruijff's Dream Team of the 90s. I mean technically exceptional players, creative and young enough to build a long-lasting project around them. There were a few good signings with this idea in mind: Frenkie de Jong, Marc-André ter Stegen, Nélson Semedo or Arthur.
The Brazilian Arthur is currently in the process of leaving the club and the reason for this is purely economic: the club needs money to close this year's accounts without showing losses. This situation is unfortunately a result of a serious mismanagement. For some mysterious reason the Catalan press have always been extremely mild in their criticism towards Josep Maria Bartomeu and his board of directors and so were the 'socios', the club members who elected him president already twice.
It is shocking to hear that the theoretically richest club in the world needs to start selling players after having spent around 420 million euros not long ago on just three players who are not even playing: Coutinho is on loan and the Frenchmen Griezmann and Démbelé are on the bench and constantly injured respectively. Losing Neymar to Paris Saint Germain was a painful blow to the club but there are much better ways of spending the 220 million euros the French club paid for the Brazilian.
I often ask myself: How is it that Démbelé's worrying injury record and exasperating lack of maturity were not taken into account when Barça were looking for a replacement for Neymar. Most importantly perhaps, his strong and weak points as a player are completely at odds with what Barcelona need. Démbelé is not the kind of player for a patient build-up and one or two-touch passing game in which precision in passing and taking the correct decisions is everything. He could prove to be a great signing for many English clubs but not Barça. The Frenchman's third season at the club is coming to an end and his performance and attitude have been extremely poor... and expensive. There is no doubt that Démbelé is a very talented footballer, however the investment has proven to be a complete failure.
I also ask myself if Griezmann was a necessary signing. It is a different case from his countryman's, as Antoine is visibly focused on football and has worked hard to convince the fans and the manager. The club's lack of vision explains why the Frenchman was brought in the first place. After losing such a skillful dribbler as Neymar, the team needed another attacker with the capacity of running at rival defenders and outmananeuvering them. Instead of signing a player with dribbling capabilities and creativity, the club insisted on Griezmann, who has become more of a target man, almost a 'number 9' figure since he joined Atlético from Real Sociedad. It's not that Griezmann has suddenly forgotten how to play football, the problem is that he is not what the team needed. Currently Messi is the only threat for opponents when tight defences need to be dismantled with some quick footwork.
What did surprise me was the failure of Coutinho whose performance in a top Premier League team had been consistently remarkable before he moved to Barcelona. The Brazilian's first six months at the club looked very promising and he seemed to fit in naturally into the team. I find it difficult to understand what happened afterwards. Coutinho seemed confused in Valverde's line-ups, started losing confidence and, as some journalists have pointed out, lacked the personality to turn things around. As a result, Coutinho's game started becoming extremely predictable and his situation became so unbearable that the club decided to loan him out. Barcelona will surely never recover the 160 million euros spent on the midfielder and I can't help wondering whether a better manager would have made things work for the former Liverpool star.
This season we have witnessed several other questionable decisions by the club's board. Selling Munir el Haddadi and especially loaning Carles Pérez out to Roma left the team with very few attackers when Luís Suárez was out for several months. Rafinha had been loaned to Celta before the season, while Carles Aleñá lost patience and accepted a loan at Real Betis. We could also ask why the goalkeeper Cilessen was swapped for Neto for exactly the same transfer amount. However, perhaps the most shocking of all the decisions was sacking Ernesto Valverde after a really good Spanish Supercup performance against Atlético (3:2 defeat). I have nothing against Quique Setién, but if Valverde was to be sacked, that should have been done last summer after the humilliating Champions League 2nd leg in Anfield Road, not with the season under way. The truth is that since that Supercup defeat I haven't seen the team play well even once, and I don't blame Setién for that.
These are only some of the most recent mistakes committed by the Barça management and perhaps the most serious ones. Another disappointing aspect is the gradual loss of confidence in the exceptionally prolific Barcelona youth academy. Barça fans will hope that Riqui Puig and Ansu Fati become the next stars for the team, but there seems to be no stable project for the post-Messi era and this could compromise the development of such home-grown talents. The club has already displayed its little confidence in the 'canteranos' when Alejandro Grimaldo and Marc Cucurella were sold and Júnior Firpo was signed instead, an investment which has all the signs of another failure, while both Grimaldo and Cucurella are thriving in their new clubs.
What are the prospects then? The near future is looking quite bleak. There is no vision or consistent project to build a team with a coherent and recognisable identity, like Guardiola's or Luís Enrique's sides which won the Champions League. Expensive signings frequently fail to adapt and the club is a mess at the administrative level. Arthur's departure for Juventus is a bad omen: the club is swapping its identity and long-term project for immediate results in a desperate attempt to win a trophy before the Messi era is over. What about the future though? Even the present: Does the team have enough quality to once more lift the major European cup? I doubt it. Perhaps the only hope for the club is if early elections are announced and the current board finally leave management to more competent people with a coherent vision for the future.
To be exact, this depression has been looming over the club ever since Pep Guardiola left it back in 2012. Tito Vilanova still had an amazing team at his disposal, but then Tata Martino failed to win a single title in the 2013-2014 season. The greatness and pride in the team were recovered for a few years with Luís Enrique and the great MSN trio up front, but the departure of Neymar three years ago was a turning point from which the club hasn't recovered.
There is no excuse for ruining a team which still has the best footballer on the planet in its ranks. All you needed to do as the board of directors was to surround Messi with the right kind of players who fit in the football culture which the team has developed at least since Johan Cruijff's Dream Team of the 90s. I mean technically exceptional players, creative and young enough to build a long-lasting project around them. There were a few good signings with this idea in mind: Frenkie de Jong, Marc-André ter Stegen, Nélson Semedo or Arthur.
The Brazilian Arthur is currently in the process of leaving the club and the reason for this is purely economic: the club needs money to close this year's accounts without showing losses. This situation is unfortunately a result of a serious mismanagement. For some mysterious reason the Catalan press have always been extremely mild in their criticism towards Josep Maria Bartomeu and his board of directors and so were the 'socios', the club members who elected him president already twice.
It is shocking to hear that the theoretically richest club in the world needs to start selling players after having spent around 420 million euros not long ago on just three players who are not even playing: Coutinho is on loan and the Frenchmen Griezmann and Démbelé are on the bench and constantly injured respectively. Losing Neymar to Paris Saint Germain was a painful blow to the club but there are much better ways of spending the 220 million euros the French club paid for the Brazilian.
I often ask myself: How is it that Démbelé's worrying injury record and exasperating lack of maturity were not taken into account when Barça were looking for a replacement for Neymar. Most importantly perhaps, his strong and weak points as a player are completely at odds with what Barcelona need. Démbelé is not the kind of player for a patient build-up and one or two-touch passing game in which precision in passing and taking the correct decisions is everything. He could prove to be a great signing for many English clubs but not Barça. The Frenchman's third season at the club is coming to an end and his performance and attitude have been extremely poor... and expensive. There is no doubt that Démbelé is a very talented footballer, however the investment has proven to be a complete failure.
I also ask myself if Griezmann was a necessary signing. It is a different case from his countryman's, as Antoine is visibly focused on football and has worked hard to convince the fans and the manager. The club's lack of vision explains why the Frenchman was brought in the first place. After losing such a skillful dribbler as Neymar, the team needed another attacker with the capacity of running at rival defenders and outmananeuvering them. Instead of signing a player with dribbling capabilities and creativity, the club insisted on Griezmann, who has become more of a target man, almost a 'number 9' figure since he joined Atlético from Real Sociedad. It's not that Griezmann has suddenly forgotten how to play football, the problem is that he is not what the team needed. Currently Messi is the only threat for opponents when tight defences need to be dismantled with some quick footwork.
What did surprise me was the failure of Coutinho whose performance in a top Premier League team had been consistently remarkable before he moved to Barcelona. The Brazilian's first six months at the club looked very promising and he seemed to fit in naturally into the team. I find it difficult to understand what happened afterwards. Coutinho seemed confused in Valverde's line-ups, started losing confidence and, as some journalists have pointed out, lacked the personality to turn things around. As a result, Coutinho's game started becoming extremely predictable and his situation became so unbearable that the club decided to loan him out. Barcelona will surely never recover the 160 million euros spent on the midfielder and I can't help wondering whether a better manager would have made things work for the former Liverpool star.
This season we have witnessed several other questionable decisions by the club's board. Selling Munir el Haddadi and especially loaning Carles Pérez out to Roma left the team with very few attackers when Luís Suárez was out for several months. Rafinha had been loaned to Celta before the season, while Carles Aleñá lost patience and accepted a loan at Real Betis. We could also ask why the goalkeeper Cilessen was swapped for Neto for exactly the same transfer amount. However, perhaps the most shocking of all the decisions was sacking Ernesto Valverde after a really good Spanish Supercup performance against Atlético (3:2 defeat). I have nothing against Quique Setién, but if Valverde was to be sacked, that should have been done last summer after the humilliating Champions League 2nd leg in Anfield Road, not with the season under way. The truth is that since that Supercup defeat I haven't seen the team play well even once, and I don't blame Setién for that.
These are only some of the most recent mistakes committed by the Barça management and perhaps the most serious ones. Another disappointing aspect is the gradual loss of confidence in the exceptionally prolific Barcelona youth academy. Barça fans will hope that Riqui Puig and Ansu Fati become the next stars for the team, but there seems to be no stable project for the post-Messi era and this could compromise the development of such home-grown talents. The club has already displayed its little confidence in the 'canteranos' when Alejandro Grimaldo and Marc Cucurella were sold and Júnior Firpo was signed instead, an investment which has all the signs of another failure, while both Grimaldo and Cucurella are thriving in their new clubs.
What are the prospects then? The near future is looking quite bleak. There is no vision or consistent project to build a team with a coherent and recognisable identity, like Guardiola's or Luís Enrique's sides which won the Champions League. Expensive signings frequently fail to adapt and the club is a mess at the administrative level. Arthur's departure for Juventus is a bad omen: the club is swapping its identity and long-term project for immediate results in a desperate attempt to win a trophy before the Messi era is over. What about the future though? Even the present: Does the team have enough quality to once more lift the major European cup? I doubt it. Perhaps the only hope for the club is if early elections are announced and the current board finally leave management to more competent people with a coherent vision for the future.
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