[News]This is how the greatest ridicule in the history of Barcelona was created

[SougarLord]

Now you have to draw conclusions and make decisions. The phrase corresponds to Quique Setién, one of the guilty of the humiliation suffered by Barcelona after the 2-8 conceded against Bayern Munich. The Barça coach, already on the wire since the competition stopped due to the Covid-19 crisis, has the hours counted on the culé bench, although he is not solely responsible for the decline of a club that yesterday hit rock bottom and closed a glorious cycle full of titles and exhibitions. The players were received with the shout of scoundrels in the concentration hotel in Lisbon by a hobby demanding changes. Just like Piqué did after the defeat. The club needs structural changes of all kinds. It is not a thing only of the players or the coach, he criticized, pointing directly to Bartomeu. Pre-candidates for the presidency such as Víctor Font or Joan Laporta have already raised their voices demanding the resignation of the leader and an urgent call for elections. There are several keys that allow us to understand the failure of Barcelona.

 

A wandering sports direction.

The plot headed by Eric Abidal or Ramón Planas did not succeed with the signings or with the sports planning. A lot of money was invested in footballers who have not proven worth it. Yesterday Griezmann, Dembélé and Coutinho (on loan to Bayern), which cost 400 million euros, started the game on the bench. It has not been known to strengthen the defensive line, it has been sold or loaned to footballers in the middle of the season to balance the accounts, notably weakening the team, which has been forced to sign Braithwaite after the winter market. Improvisation has been the flag of a sports management that was left with shame in the air when it was discovered that they were negotiating with Xavi, which significantly weakened Valverde and forced his departure in the middle of the season.

 

                   

 

A squad without generational change.

Barcelona has invested many millions without it being noticed in its eleven type. Of the starting team that yesterday played against Bayern Munich, six players were over 30 years old (Piqué, Jordi Alba, Busquets, Arturo Vidal, Luis Suárez and Messi). In fact, seven footballers who won the Berlin Champions League in 2015, five years ago, continue to weigh heavily on the team. Messi warned him at the beginning of the year: With what we have, it does not reach us. The Argentine saw it, who echoed an unbalanced and aging squad, in which many footballers play by the gallon. It takes a center back, two full-backs and a pivot to prop up the defense and rejuvenate an exhausted squad. And as if that were not enough, one of the players to arrive will be Pjanic, who at 31 has been traded for Arthur, who was 23, in a clear economic move to balance the budget.

 

A spoiled wardrobe.

Much has been said about the power of the players. They earned the right to decide on many aspects when they filled the showcases with titles but their power has been increasing inversely proportional to their performance. There have been shameful episodes such as Dembélé's lateness and unpunctuality, Arturo Vidal's complaint to the club for the alleged non-payment of some bonds, Gerard Piqué's busy social and professional life, more focused on his Davis Cup than on the future of the season, Luis Suárez's decision to undergo surgery putting the interests of his team before those of the club, Umtiti's refusal to have surgery and force with France, Arthur's rebellion refusing to return to Barcelona to play the Champions League, complaints of Busquets towards the coach after some defeat, Rakitic's laments for his substitutions, Semedo's decision to skip the health protocol for the Covid attending a massive birthday without a mask ... The power of the players has prevailed over that of the coach or to the board of directors.

 

Low ability to make decisions.

The directive has been putting patches to the broken ones that were arising. In recent years there have been numerous and successive changes in the sports management, which has denoted the lack of a clear project that has been evident in the replacement of coach at mid-season when the team was leading in the League and had reached the Round of 16 of the Champions as first of the group and with a match to go. A sense of swing when it comes to dealing with signings, such as the attempt to recover Neymar last year against all odds, or Griezmann after the sit-in he gave the club a year earlier. Bartomeu kept Valverde after the debacles in Rome and Liverpool when the culé environment asked him for his head and dismissed him when there were no apparent reasons to do so. Bartomeu has been weakened, who has also been harmed by some murky events such as the case of social networks and the subsequent resignation of his dolphin, Emili Rousaud, who left with four more managers.

 

A timid coach.

Setién arrived with the Cruyffismo manual under his arm as the only argument to excite the Barça fans. It was enough to alleviate his null curriculum but he soon betrayed the idolized ideology to put the results first. Thus, he changed the 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 and lost the respect of the dressing room, which marked him in the most significant defeats. The manner of his volcanic assistant, Eder Sarabia, did not help him either. The images of Sarabia criticizing and shouting at the soccer players in the classic sat like a shot in the booth. The technician left the meritocracy to bet on the hierarchy and try to satisfy a locker room that swallowed him up. Valverde had been criticized a lot despite his two leagues and a Cup, but Setién did not improve him in titles or at stake. His hours are numbered. Mauricio Pochettino, the one who said that he preferred to go live on his farm in Argentina before training Barcelona, is on pole to relieve him. One more sample of the erratic and improvised sports policy of the club.