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Recent talk of unrest at Barcelona is unsettling for us all. Barcelona are not the sort of club one associates with unrest. For a generation they have been the model of consistency, dependability and decency. Managers may have come and gone, but the edifice that is Barce has prevailed – impressively distinct, brilliantly accomplished on the park and seemingly impervious to the sort of short-term fluctuations that plague lesser rivals.
But at the time of writing they are four points adrift of their great rivals Real Madrid and there is talk of a major fall out between the manager Luis Enrique and Lionel Messi. Fuelled no doubt by all the excitement that the English January transfer window generates, there has even been talk of Messi leaving Barca.
The Argentinian maestro has played down that talk, but there are signs that the Messi we know and love and indeed the Barca that we have seen over the years, are both beginning to fade. It is perhaps inevitable that the man and the team he has carried in his image for so long should have their fates entwined in this way. Such is the stature of Messi that any club he graces – even one as great as Barca – is bound to be cast in his shadow.
Not that Messi himself likes to see it that way. Despite serial talk of him having an influence within the club that can see managers and star players replaced at his whim, Messi insists he is a team man. He declares he is growing tired of perpetually having to make the same denial – that he is not undermining the coach, that he has not fallen out with key players etc. etc. No wonder his is getting tired of it, it is something he has to do a lot of.
Messi scored the opening goal when Barca finally managed to get the better of Atletico Madrid – who incidentally dealt a blow to their and Barca’s rival, Real Madrid’s Spanish Cup chances with a 2-0 defeat just days prior – on January 11th. Indeed, looking at betfair, for example, Real (6/1) are now behind Atletico (4/1) and Barcelona (5/4) in the betting to win the Copa del Rey. That shows the impact of the result on Real.
However, Barca’s win over Atletico was notable on a number of fronts, and not all of them as positive as the fact that – despite the confidence placed in Barca by the likes of many across Spain – the win was their first over Diego Simeone’s men in eight attempts.
Messi was booked in the game for a high challenge on the keeper. He also conceded the first penalty of his career. These are not cataclysmic events in themselves – everyone gets booked at some point, just as anyone can find themselves arriving late for a challenge – but taken together they throw open the possibility that Messi’s powers may be not quite what they were.
Once upon a time the notion that Messi’s timing might be off to the point where he might follow through on a keeper – as was the case against Atletico – would be unthinkable. It would be like Pavarotti missing a note, or Lewis Hamilton stalling on the starting grid. The neatness, the speed of thought, the wholly decent way he plays the game seem to be just that fraction less impressive in the 2014/15 vintage than what we are accustomed to. Let us remember, this is not just any footballer we are talking about here. In most, if not all of these regards, Messi has been peerless.
Whatever the rivalry between the Argentinian and the equally irresistible Christiano Ronaldo, there has always been the sense that it matters more to the Portuguese starleyt than it does to Messi. Ronaldo is clearly deeply motivated by his historical if not popular standing. All that bare chested self-benediction is not for Messi for whom, it seems, the simple dynamics of the football itself are all that is required to satisfy him. Indeed, it has at times seemed as though Messi is that rarest of all creatures, an internationally lauded sportsman with no apparent ego at all. In a much decorated era his lack of tattoos, suntan or even his hairstlyes – past and present – mark him out as a distinctively old-fashioned innocent.
He may have scored once and contributed the other two goals in the game against Atletico, but there is a growing sense that Messi – who has been so irresistibly sharp over the past ten years – is a player with whom time is beginning to catch up – even at the relatively young age of 28. Strikers age faster than defenders, midfielders or goalkeepers for whom fast-twitch reactions are a less important aspect of their speciality. Even at 28, Messi is aging fast.
And if there is a fading of the powers that Messi brings to the Camp Nou pitch, there is an equivalent sense that Barca are not what they were. Of course, with Messi to the fore Barca were a recreation of the great teams that have worn those shirts in previous years. The teams that boasted the likes of Gary Linekar and Ronald Koeman were hardly short of glory, Johan Cruyff’s ‘dream team’ is not so easily forgotten.
It is in the nature of great teams that they must rebuild from generation to generation. What made Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United stewardship was not so much a measure of the accumulated success he enjoyed, it was the way he was able to continually reinvent and reinvigorate the team under his charge.
It seems as though Barcelona, either under the charge of Luis Enrique or another man, are on the cusp of just such a regenerative move. The midfield axis that has sustained Messi’s career and which has largely been created in the service of his particular footballing needs, is beginning to age. It is not just Messi who is beginning to feel the effects of those many thousands of kilometres he has covered in a Barcelona shirt. Xavi and Iniesta are in the age bracket where the footballing light can fade all-too suddenly. Xavi will turn 35 before January is out, Iniesta is 31.
As those players find each season just that little more draining, the spark that has marked an unprecedented era of Spanish success, and which in the process lead to a reinvention of the game not seen since the days of Ferenc Puskas (who soared to fame with his exploits for both Real Madrid and his national side, Hungary) is moving towards its final chapters.
For many, the end of the great Barca era began with the departure of Pep Guardiola in 2011. After just four years in charge that brought untold success to the Nou Camp and which also moved tiki-taka to a new level, Guradiola moved on. For many, at the time, it felt like a cataclysmic separation. A single national title in the period since that time has felt like a confirmation of that sentiment. It’s not that the Catalans have become in any way a poor team since that golden period under Guardiola, it is just that they have not been as good as they were.
And, there is a sense that faced with the Galactico model of Real Madrid, they have stumbled towards an uncomfortable form of imitation. The signings of Neymar and latterly Luis Suarez have seems to be more about the kudos which such marquee signings might generate than their contribution to the long term development of the squad. The star players may be new, but the freshness and the clarity of thought that once marked Barcelona out as the thinking fans’ team is now missing.
For many, the signing of Suarez marked an important ethical watershed. Part of the universal goodwill that Barca generated whilst Guardiola was at the helm derived from their rejection of a commercial shirt sponsorship in favour of the famous tie in with UNICEF. For then-President, Joan Laporta the move represented a marketing triumph. Matched by the unique quality of how the team went about its business on the pitch, the UNICEF deal saw the club cast in the role of the universal good guy. The motto, ‘More than a club’ had never seemed more apt. In terms of the watching millions the signing of Suarez in 2014 could hardly have been more different.
For all his footballing brilliance Suarez arrived with a reputation as a dangerously overwrought personality. Serial biting incidents had seen him marked out as one of the least popular modern footballers anywhere. An unpleasant race-row during his time in England only added to the negative publicity surrounding the Uruguayan who had – let it be remembered – come to international prominence with a cynical hand ball in the 2010 World Cup which denied Ghana a place in the quarter finals. Suarez’s public persona was entirely at odds with the brand building that had once seen Barce held in such universally high esteem.
For casual followers of the Catalan giants the signing felt like a rejection, a compromise to a once cherished ideal for the sake of a short term and unnecessary expediency.
A breath of fresh air
But for football purists that ethical position extended to the brand of football that was on offer. Against an orthodoxy that celebrated defensive cynicism and brute strength, Guardiola’s side were a breath of fresh air. Their use of the ball was an illustration of the power of the simple virtues of technique that gave every schoolboy coach across the continent a blueprint to work from. At the same time, the targeted defensive press, with the emphasis on a rapid recapture of possession, again gave hope to the little guys.
It was a brilliantly successful formula – tailored to the physical attributes of personnel already at the club, and designed to provide the perfect machinery to keep the ball on the ground and to deliver it to the feet of Lionel Messi.
The further evolution – the development of the false number 9 may have been borne of necessity, but it was again an evolution that was inspirationally game-changing, even as it was reliant on the peculiar genius of a man at his best amidst the split second compress of a crowded penalty area. You have to feel sorry for all those hulking great centre halves to have been left spatchcocked by Mussi’s quicksilver turn of foot. We may never see his like again, which makes it all the more poignant that we should celebrate him whilst he is – however temporarily – still at something close to his best.
The club around him may have slipped in the public imagination, and there may be on-the-field evolutions that are less well-suited to his gifts – Naymar likes space to run in, as does Suarez. Messi’s stock in trade relies on the close proximity of less nimble defenders. There is a sense that the three are yet to find a wholly satisfactory formula, and the talk of internal tensions within the squad are perhaps a testament to that, whatever the public denials.
A lingering hope
Of course, we may be jumping the gun. Indeed, it is to be hoped that we are. It would be a terrible sadness to see Messi’s brilliance fade prematurely. Let us hope that the current season is the inevitable follow up to a long and gruelling World Cup competition. Let us wish that Messi’s enduring talent can rise again to the peaks of form which have made him such an iconic hero to millions.
In the process, let us hope that the same is true of Barcelona, a club that as the flag bearer for a the Catalan minority, proudly boasts itself to be ‘more than a club’. To millions of ardent fans around the globe, those famous blue and red shirts represent something more than just a footballing brand. They stand as the proud assertion of the power and the potency of the little guy. Messi fearlessly confounding defenders almost twice his size stands as a metaphor for all those who have felt the world against them. His unruffled acceptance of the kicks, the elbows and the punches that he encounters at every turn are the sublime example of a man turning the other cheek.
Barcelona is more than a club. At times, and for some it has assumed the status of a religion. Whilst there is much else that is uncertain surrounding Barcelona currently, Messi’s place in that equation is not in doubt.
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