The solution to Barça's ills is in a stone house, a symbol of its uniqueness and identity. Each time he strays from it, a punishment of biblical proportions falls on his destiny. deserved La Masia is the spiritual and material nucleus around which the great teams of this club's contemporary history have sprung up, synthesized by two memorable transformers who emerged from its rooms: Messi as a player and Guardiola as a coach.
Barcelona's problem in recent years has been buying mediocre and very expensive footballers who didn't need to go looking for them anywhere because they already had them. We are not talking about the crack players, the differential footballers, for these Barça has always fought in the market, but for a sack of averages who, due to the mismanagement of successive directors and executives without a north (or thinking badly, not so much) have ruined Barça , who now cannot sign the players who used to fight to come.
Barcelona continues to flirt even today with the stupid mania of turning the squad into a bazaar, as if it didn't teach, but in the end Xavi, as if the threat of his position would lead him to fail or win with his principles, has recourse to meritocracy and the Masia has emerged with a touching naturalness.
Barça fell in San Mamés last night but left a place of pride that takes the form of a way forward. Losing is not good, we will not soften the defeats here, but losing having been able to win by seeing stand out, and in what way, three minors leaves another aftertaste. The one of nostalgia and hope mixed.
Lamine Yamal (16), Héctor Fort (17) and Pau Cubarsí (17) captivated us as before Iniesta, Puyol and Xavi when they debuted, adapting to the first team like Gilda to her black gloves. What a match the dwarfs played. Will the click finally change everything? What will make the construction discourse, albeit late, take shape? When Xavi brought on Marc Guiu (18) in extra time instead of Vitor Roque (what a craze for excursions in Brazil) it felt like this. The obedient club man letting himself be carried away by what he was raised at the Farmhouse.
Valverde, rare bird
Ernesto Valverde is an atypical coach. Mostly because it doesn't seem to want to be. He likes football but without overdoing it, he also publishes books and organizes photography exhibitions and is the type with least self-importance, a position towards life that does little to seduce and detracts from his charisma, although he should to be cheered because with more guys like him this sport wouldn't upset people so much. In contrast to his calm character, his Athletic transmits a nervousness that causes panic. Simeone's Atlético passed through San Mamés a month ago, an antagonistic coach of Valverde who seems to gamble his life in every game, and was devoured, so the performance of Xavi's Barça, added to the victory del Villamarín, allows to cushion the criticism that deserves all elimination.
Now it's time to hope that the signals left by Barça in Bilbao are not defeated by the first blow of air causing another of the usual collapses. More than anything to not make more emotional falls and have fun for longer. If it is possible to win (it sucks to lose) without ever stopping to look towards the Farmhouse.
