This is not a picture of Alfredo Martinez’s Barcelona.
Hansi Flick and Joan Laporta pictured during pre-season training. / Valenti Enrich
Olmo is in the stands, Nico Williams is on the pitch, but Athletic and Gundogan are already playing for City.. That was the reality yesterday. This summer for a Barça fan has been, to put it mildly, very discouraging.
If I had to write down all the shocks that the culés have experienced this summer, it would fill five stands. The failure to bring in Nico Williams after expectations were raised, the failure to register a new player in the first two days of the League.sacrificing a whole champion and captain of Germany like Gundogan, who you shamelessly transfer to Manchester City, devaluing the squad. The inexplicable loan of Vitor Roque to Betis a few months after paying an incredible million dollar contract that the club could not afford.
These are just a few examples of how Barcelona behaved in the summer market. And it makes no sense to talk about inheritance. The fact that the situation was difficult was already known when the elections took place, it was clearly known. What was done was to place a bet and vote for someone who was capable of turning it around. More than three years have passed and we are almost worse than where we started. Neither the levers that lay part of the club’s economic future, nor the other measures were enough to guarantee that Barcelona’s image would not be damaged and destroyed in recent times.
We don’t know where this Barça is going, where it is heading and whether it has a clear direction to get out of the darkness.. It gives a feeling of improvisation, of blows to survival. Just survival. And that’s why it’s very difficult to interest the fan.
The project is built on scraps, scraps, scraps of scraps that hide the real suffering of the economy. The club is unable to sign bright contracts or compete with the big clubs for the new stars of the continent. Without even dreaming about it. Someone jokes with Leao, and Milan laughs. Those times are gone and today’s Barcelona, helpless, goes to player registration offices and looks for transfers of football players. those already at the end of their careers or players who have already lived their best days or are looking for an exit from their team. Leftovers and discounts. And all this is far from the main showcase where the best things on the market are displayed.
But this is no longer just inheritance, no. Enough time has passed and it has not been possible to change this. Laporta’s term is ending and he is on track to go down in history with more pain than glory.. Joan, this is not the image of Barcelona, no. And above all, it is a half-truth. You cannot sell smoke to be able to attract Williams, Chiesa, Leao, and even if you release important players, you will not be able to sign Olmo. Fortunately, we will always have Lamin Jamal, this is the image we want to see at Barça.