LOSING THEIR FUTURE'S BET?
I remember in the summer when Barca were throwing their future at everyone interested and ready to pay a premium for it just to be able to finance their immediate team. It was supposed to be a calculated plan by a smart and experienced club president in a bid to return his team to glory days after the mess made by his predecessor.
Luck had smiled on the catalans for once after a lot of tinkering with managers, they had finally gotten the holy grail in Xavi, just like they did with Pep over a decade ago. The next item on the agenda was to back him with everything and give him whatever he needed to make his job easier, even if that meant upstaging veterans and selling their future.
25% of a believed fruitful years' TV rights were sold off to help in cleaning up and restocking the team that would be able to genuinely compete with the best and ensure that glory days return to the camp nou sooner rather than later. This was backed after Xavi's signing as coach and his stabilizing job went so smoothly in the later part of last season.
But not even halfway into the season, there's a feeling of de javu, a resemblance of last season where the team looks stable and good, but just not good enough. They're 3 points behind their arch rivals Real Madrid after getting soundly outplayed and beaten at the Bernabeu. Apart from that, they've been flawless in the league.
Taking a close look at the Spanish league this season, it's a clear situation of Real Madrid and the rest, just like last season. Unfortunately Barcelona looks like they're falling deep into "the rest" category, only that they're the best of the rest. It would take a mighty blip from Madrid - taking their current form into consideration - for Barça and their fellow rest to win the league this season.
Their late resurgence last season made sure that they eventually qualified for the UCL this season. But just like in the league this season, the catalans has walloped the lesser team but struggled against quality opposition. Their biggest problem being that there's only one such team here in Viktoria Plzen.
If there's anything here, it's that they have been made the second whipping boys of the group. In 4 matches against both Inter Milan and Bayern Műnchen, the catalans have lost 3 and drawn one, scoring 3 goals and conceding a whooping 9. In fact all of the 3 goals were scored in the 3-3 draw against Inter at the Camp Nou.
This is not to say that the team has been utterly poor. Far from it. The likes of Lewandowski, Dembele, Pedri, have been in fine form. While the likes of Kounde has slotted in seamlessly, though as a fullback. In truth, we can't really refer to any of their new recruits as a flop. On paper, a midfield of Kessie, De Jong and Pedri or Busquet should be able to at least hold their own against any opposition.
Same can also be said of the frontline of Dembele/Raphinha, Lewandowski, Ansu Fati/Ferran Torres. That's a quick, quality attack with the extra spice of Lewy's experience. I guess that's why they've been able to breeze through other teams except those in the upper echelon.
This team might be said to still be a work in progress and would need time to mature, but the amount of resources pumped in and the fact that the future was leveraged for this team to be assembled, I don't think they have all the time in the world.
Their failure to make it pass the group stage of the UCL and eventual drop into the Europa league will most likely not sit well with prospective investors and even the chairman. Xavi has steadied the ship and set them on a path to redemption, but so far, his team seems to have stagnated without a clear route to kick into the next gear.
His job was to build a team to competently compete with the best, but all he's done so far is be the best of the rest.
Perhaps the holy grail might not be what it seemed to be, perhaps the tools are not complete and he still needs more time and investment to complete the puzzle. All these will eventually be determined by the board, but for now, they don't look like justifying the risk.
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For all the levers they activated I am disappointed at the results. I don't think this team needs a lot of time to adapt to the style of play that they want to implement. They have been good against the smaller teams in laliga but sadly against the big boys they have been shit. All this levers being activated is going to put them in mire and more trouble.
In other news, I heard if care is not taken they might not be able to pay the wages of their players.
Its good to gamble but make sure to gamble with money you can loose and not be in dept.
I don't think they get the memo. When the investment is high, then the risk is high as well.
As for the wage issue, they're even still owing some of the players and cannot afford to add to their woes
😂😂It’s funny and at the same time so sad. U guess they will end up offloading Frankie Dejong cause they won’t wanna pay his deferred wages now.
And that one will hold them by the balls
I feel like if there would be another cach other than Xavi then the whole club would burn down. I think that he will not be able to win the league but the Europa League is something to fight for.