Once a side that dominated the world like the Roman Empire in its prime, Barcelona are now a club in constant turmoil, where the slightest mishap is magnified 1000 times.
Trophies have still come in, so it’s not been all bad, but this season, with the controversial arrival of Antoine Griezmann (who has yet to live up to his €120m fee) and a Lionel Messi dropping in and out of the squad due to injuries, their form has been all over the place.
Even Ansu Fati, the shining light at the end of the tunnel, hasn’t been able to lift the spirits at the Camp Nou for more than a few days, and Toni Frieros, a columnist for Sport, wrote a rather emotional piece on Thursday looking at the chaotic state of his local side.
Describing Barcelona as a ‘unique club’, he then compares it to a ‘volcano in constant activity, and, depending on the era, the events or the actors, make it erupt, and then everything goes back to normal’.
He says that’s the ‘glory (and for others the misery) of a club that is the property of everyone, and not just one person’.
Valencia and Real Madrid (who are also fan owned) are used as contrasting examples, with Peter Lim and Florentino Pérez (who seems to be the forever president) doing what they want, when they want, and while that isn’t always a good thing, it certainly brings more stability at the top, unlike at Barcelona, who appear to always be talking about the next presidency election.
Two questions are then asked: whether players have too much power and if Barcelona handles the media?
While the first is something that has always been an issue, the second is seen as ‘absurd’, because if the club did have that much power over the likes of Sport and Mundo Deportivo, why would there be constant controversy?
Everything would be calm.
For Frieros, all these issues come as part of the package of being associated with Barcelona, whether it be as a fan or as someone who works around them: ‘This has always been the love/hate relationship, and it will continue to be so, because that is Barça. It’s neither Valencia, Manchester City… or Real Madrid’.
