The beauty of football is unpredictability. We know how a match starts but not how it will end; what color a season paints, if pink or black, but not if time will deny us. Xavi's Barça is an example of this magical ebb and flow. Its surprising improvement rests both on a set of very well-made decisions and on a portion of mystery that always accompanies equipment that suddenly lights up, as if activated by a secret switch. There are precedents in the history of the club. 6-3 at La Romareda in the era of the dream team; the incorporation of Davids in that of Rijkaard; the fight between Luis Enrique and Messi in Anoeta, curiously refereed on time by Xavi the player...
Barça played a phenomenal game in Paris. He was showing signs of recovery, but no one had seen this determination coming. The work was choral, a factor that defines the teams made, and the plan came out perfectly. The bad moments (aspiring not to have them in the quarter-finals is completely ignorant of current football) were assimilated with maturity and PSG ended up succumbing in every area of the field, losing the small battles, held by a rival that has gone from belittled, disjointed and soft to respectable, committed and with its own footing.
The defeat against Villarreal in Montjuïc (3-5) can be taken as a turning point for lovers of well-constructed stories. At that time, Barça was a doll that any team dared to shake. Xavi said goodbye, the footballers hit rock bottom individually and collectively and the group, which talked a lot among themselves, had an attack of responsibility. Gündogan was key in exercising leadership in the dressing room and Xavi, with less stress in his backpack, looked for solutions. He found two momentous ones: stopping the bleeding of so many conceded goals by betting on Christensen in the middle of the field and giving the alternative to a central player who followed from the lower categories, Pau Cubarsí. The shaking of the shaker put other pieces in place, Barça started to win games, confidence was consolidated in the tie against Naples and at the Metropolitano and the ten days without competition helped to work in peace. The Masia varnish infused the libretto with a dose of pride and hope in the Barcelona spirit that was palpable in the atmosphere. By atmosphere you mean the bar or the WhatsApp groups of friends.
Xavi, errant in his search for close media enemies, emerges as an essential figure in this metamorphosis. The artificiality of the word planter used as a populist make-up sounds sincere to him. He is a piece of Masia and responsible for its resurgence, whether from the rescue of Sergi Roberto or from his bravery with Lamine Yamal, Fermín and company. Barcelonianism smiles and embraces Xavi again, and places in him a helm that, paradoxically for Barça, it will let go in the summer.
Are there options that you regret your resignation? Right now, few. The improvement of the team has not been followed by the economy. If, after three years of change in management, the financial solution to obtain income is to sell fundamental footballers (Araújo), rather than giving the coach what he asks for to bring performance closer to expectations, there is no going back. It is urgent that the energy and dexterity (?) of managers and executives be diverted to helping Xavi and not to tarnish his reputation, disloyalty silenced today but which occurred in the bad times. If the coach calls for a midfielder (Zubimendi or Kimmich) or a danger generator (Bernardo Silva), the millions cannot be spent on Vítor Roque, a footballer who is currently behind Lewandowski, Raphinha, Lamine Yamal, Ferran Torres and even João Félix. While the plot thread on the lawn is from the Masia, what unites the last three presidents is André Cury. This is the anomaly. The promise of austerity or business excellence turned into chatter.
