For the first time in the Lionel Messi era, Barcelona looks a decidedly inferior side to Real Madrid going into a La Liga season.
The 72 Liga seasons before Messi’s first-team debut yielded 16 titles; the 14 with the Argentine genius have produced eight. Barcelona, moreover, dominated El Clasico in this period, a 12-7 win-loss record over Madrid in La Liga proof of the gulf.
But ahead of the 2017-18 season, things appear significantly different.
While Madrid starts the campaign as a Europe-conquering defending champion – thanks in no little part to savvy acquisitions in the transfer market over the last two years, a departure from the Galactico policy – Barcelona seems a shadow of the great teams that Johan Cruyff and Pep Guardiola built.
The 5-1 aggregate in the two-legged Spanish Super Cup, where Barcelona by all accounts was embarrassed, threw a harsh light on the state of affairs.
There’s considerable anxiety in the Catalan world, both at the power shift and how it has happened. Two transfers have set the alarm bells ringing. For many following the Blaugrana, these transfers highlight two of the most worrying aspects of the situation; indeed, the great Xavi said the club has “fallen asleep”.
Neymar’s jaw-dropping move to PSG was unprecedented in recent Barcelona history. In doing to Barca what Barca often does to other big clubs, PSG knocked it down several pegs. It was a power move that raised an unnerving question for the Catalan faithful: Is the club no longer the most attractive destination in world football as it fervently believes?
While the loss of Neymar was a severe assault on the ego, the signing of defensive midfielder Paulinho brought up another significant issue. The Brazilian was drafted in as back-up for Sergio Busquets, a player essential to the Barcelona identity. Where were the prospects from La Masia, the famed youth system dedicated to developing the style of play intrinsic to the club? Why had the production line that supplied a record seven of 11 starters for the 2011 Champions League final stopped?
The decline of Barcelona’s midfield – with Xavi’s retirement, and the ageing of Andres Iniesta and Busquets – has been central to the club’s problems. The midfield sets Barcelona’s agenda; when that is affected, it hits at the very core of the identity Cruyff and Guardiola emphasised.
Two players tipped as Xavi and Busquets’ successors – Thiago Alcantara and Sergi Samper – have slipped through the cracks: an ambitious Alcantara left to join Guardiola at Bayern Munich while Samper, who attracted the attentions of Arsenal, stayed but stagnated without enough opportunities at the top level.
Samper’s situation isn’t unique. Several La Masia talents have either hit a ceiling or moved on, talented winger Jordi Mboula’s switch to AS Monaco the biggest recent loss. This has coincided with some questionable activity in the transfer market. Where Madrid has bought Spanish talent in cut-price deals, Barcelona has been both naive and stubborn: Marco Asensio, who has lit up the Santiago Bernabeu, was first offered to Barca, who wanted him for €2 million less and missed out as a result.
Many point to the internecine power struggle in the hierarchy at the board level as the cause for the rot. Joan Laporta, Barca president between 2003 and 2010, said in a recent interview that the club was destroyed from within by the Sandro Rosell administration, which was more intent on making money than being successful on the field. Rosell, jailed without bail this year on charges of misappropriating funds during Neymar’s transfer from Santos, has since been replaced by Josep Bartomeu.
Bartomeu is himself being investigated for tax fraud resulting from the Neymar signing. The current president is, however, hoping to complete the capture of Philippe Coutinho from Liverpool and Ousman Dembele from Borussia Dortmund to arm new coach Ernesto Valverde in the battle against Madrid. But unless Barcelona’s administration addresses deeper, structural issues afflicting the club, it will struggle to keep up.
