Real Madrid won the Spanish Super Cup on penalties over Atletico Madrid last week, in Saudi Arabia, and FC Barcelona has not yet recovered. Having allowed Atleti to beat them 3-2 in the semifinals while Madrid was winning handily 3-1 over Valencia, seemed a blow too far for the Cule front office.
The Catalan Giants lead La Liga by a two-goal margin over their archrivals—tied at 40 points apiece but with a better goal differential. Barca are also in the last 32 of this year’s Copa del Rey, playing lowly Ibiza next. Finally, they are in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League, kindly paired with Napoli. But, for the cule club that has boasted Lionel Messi in its ranks since age 12, that simply is not good enough.
The team had lost too many important matches, had been bounced out early from the Champions League in back-to-back tourneys and had lost the previous Copa del Rey final 1-2 to Valencia. Most uncomfortably, though, they seemed to have lost the swagger that would allow the Catalan identity standard bearers feel they could stand up to their Royal opponents.
Frankly, beating Real Madrid—at the transfer market, in attendance, at the two domestic and several international competitions they could conceivably contend for, in international prestige and popularity—has always been more important than any team trophy. So, ironically, at a time when the Merengues are still looking for a post-Cristiano Ronaldo identity, when Florentino Perez had to give in to most of Zinedine Zidane’s demands to take on the perennially vacated head coaching job, and with about half the squad considering greener turfs, FC Barcelona felt they were the ones that needed a coaching change.
The double irony, of course, is that both Spanish Giants would benefit from a wholesale administrative overhaul—from the president on down—to bring in fresher blood. Not to say any inheritors would begin from a fresh page, too much history has been written to be easily overcome, but even a new look at the ageless rivalry might help both clubs.
So, will this latest coaching change be the sentient modification FC Barcelona needs to enter the final stages of the Messi era? History suggests happenstance and politics might well hold sway over father time in determining how long this latest cule change lasts.
So, while the cule futbol club dances to Elvis’ rendition, the rest of the Spanish and European club family might well vacillate while pondering what the latest twist from FC Barcelona portends for all who contend with Messi’s squad in his waning years.
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