Since football interests philosophers and journalistic chronicles are written by poets, to move in this sport it is essential that the presidents of the teams, and especially the coaches who appear weekly in front of the press to break their faces, have a story A Barcelona legend like Ronald Koeman ended up being fired because he was too honest after a home defeat against Bayern Munich and said: "It is what it is". Calvinists are like that, they stick to the strictest reality and don't come with romance.
Any communication expert would have advised him to declare that in many moments the team has shown that it could win, but we lost because of the small details. Or any other verbal paraphrase in order to avoid a forceful headline. I have no doubt that in coaching schools there will soon be sessions on how to make up for a defeat in front of the press. The American political scientist Stanley Greenberg wrote that the story is the key to everything, whoever tells the best story wins. Sometimes even when he loses.
After Girona's thrashing of Barça, Xavi Hernández, who is getting better with the press, declared that we needed to be calm, that Barça was a team under construction. A brilliant excuse, without a doubt, since the rival coach has been sitting on the Girona bench for the same amount of time and already has everything built. And with less budget.
But it must be recognized that he made a good argument in a city like Barcelona, which has been building the Sagrada Família since the 19th century and which has been preparing a square like the Glòries Catalanes for more than a decade. Barça is not only more than a club, but also the best metaphor for Catalonia, where everything that does not work is because it is under construction, be it education, health or infrastructure.
The luck is that Catalans are positive people, like Xavi. Not only because we have patience, but because we have even been able to turn the pro-independence failure into a chant to encourage in the stadium. It cannot be said that we are not good people.
