WHY EVERY BARCA FAN SHOULD ROOT AGAINST THEIR CLUB FOR THE COPA DEL REY FINAL

         
         IF YOU'RE A BARCELONA FAN, THE ONLY WAY THROUGH IS DOWN...

         With the interviews of many Barca players (and especially their board members and president), it becomes clear that all are okay and comfortable with Ernesto Valverde staying on as manager after the debacles in Rome and Liverpool.
           However, if you ask your average Cule around the world, this immediately becomes a cause of great shame and desperation...the lack of control for Barca fans  (used to getting everything they want) is scaring them...including myself.

Can you feel the "love"???

            It seems no matter what happens,  Ernesto Valverde will remain as Barcelona manager due to the vibe of lukewarm contentment that he shrouds Barca in: the players have spoken...Alba, Rakitic and Busquets have all said "we're comfortable with him"....there's that word again: comfortable.
             There are no checks or balances, there isn't a tidal of wave of press and fan-helmed shame that will make Valverde bend or break...and there are no requirements he must meet to keep his job, nor for the players to keep theirs...the situation seems almost insane...untenable and definitively unsustainable for any club...let alone ours.
             We have seen the greatest player of all time (playing in the greatest club) waste the most opportune time to finally gain ground on Real Madrid and their recent successes....in fact, we've been cheated out of an El Clasico final in the Champions League at a few points in the last 5 years, as well as watching a ludicrous amount of energy from Messi, Busquets, Alba,  Pique and Suarez expelled for next to nothing, with all five playing an incredulous 50 matches each season.
              Not only that, in the most embarrassing, humiliating and debilitating season for Real Madrid in recent club memory, all anyone will remember from the 2018/19 season is the embarrassing, humiliating and debilitating capitulation by Barcelona in the Champions League.
               Under Valverde, we've seen frequent injuries to the core players  (who for most of their careers hardly missed a match), we've seen their recoveries shortened, strangled and laid to waste in the name of Valverde doing whatever he wants, when he wants and with zero reservations. 
             We've seen a cavalier usage of players, not only in bringing them back too soon from injuries, but in how they've been stupidly rotated. 
           A young player who's worked hard for minutes only gets 19 minutes at the end of a game and produces a match winning moment and an overall fantastic display....only to never see the pitch again. 
          We've witnessed Ivan Rakitic listlessly play every single match as if it were his birth-right due to a contract clause inserted into his extension with the assistance and prodding of Valverde...and why? So we don't have to play Riqui Puig, Carles Alena, Arthur or even experiment with Coutinho in midfield? And now the Croatian thinks he can publicly challenge and belittle Frenkie De Jong in the media as the player arrives, showing a distorted shape of insecurity towards the Dutchman....we allow this to happen????
              There was the mishandling of Dembele from the second he walked off of the plane in Catalonia after doing everything possible (including getting a little ruthless) to be a Barca player. He immediately was spun into a cycle of injuries and unfair criticism thanks to Ernesto Valverde rushing him into the starting XI in a colossal Match day 1 tie against Juventus in the Champions League group stage, then rushing him into the starting XI again only two days later in a meaningless contest vs Getafe: three appearances in 6 days after missing an entire two months of playing time and practice beforehand.
             Ousmane Dembele never had muscle or hamstring issues before the Getafe match, nevertheless it was Valverde outrageously blaming Dembele's youth and inexperience for his hamstring injury after Getafe in a press conference, setting off a continuum of fan hatred towards Dembele that didn't let up until early in 2019, and  also directing a year-long media blitz into the private and professional life of the Frenchman, whether intentional or not the manager's disparaging comments continued to keep the heat on Dembele even when it was the very 21 year old who was saving Valverde's face every Monday morning with his match-winning abilities.
              Elsewhere, Coutinho has been a disaster, yet the tactical prison cell Valverde has dictated for him on the left wing has also contributed heavily. But in starting Coutinho in double the amount of matches than Dembele (while Ousmane won the club nearly as many points as Lionel Messi, scored 5 more goals and produced double the assists in only a fraction of the playing time as that of Coutinho) you realize that no player will learn the harshest lessons when there's no consequence for laziness and waste.
             More than anything, the guy just doesn't get it:
            Valverde makes great practice of favoring players who don't deserve the respect or the undying, obsessively flagrant recurring utilization (Rakitic, Coutinho etc); punishing players who worked hard, played even harder and then were swept under the manager's dirty, conservative rug regardless of performance or importance to the team (Malcolm, Ousmane Dembele etc). 
            This disgust with youthful attacking talent combines with his ludicrous belief in defensive, bruising football, nearly scoffing at the "naivete" of actually playing attractive, possession-oriented (or positive) football of any kind, eschewing a simple starting spot for a winger (that would grant Messi space) and going for a right back instead (we saw how that worked out).
            It's as if this destructive regime in charge of Barcelona thinks the Rinus Michels / Cruyff / Guardiola style of football is extinct and almost a joke to them...the board, the criminal president, and especially the disgraceful Pep Segura (who wanted Paulinho over Arthur, Gomes over Seri) think it's football for little boys' fantasies instead of being the fulcrum of our identity as a club. 
           And because of this rampant negativity, the players are often too scared or emotionally and physically exhausted to mutiny against this insanity....perhaps things are as bad as we think they are and there isn't even a single inkling, indication or atomic synapses of advancing their ideals upon the board, bringing them to their knees because, hey, if Lionel Messi were to say "Valverde needs to go" he would be gone, right?????
           But there's nothing like that going on.               
           Messi said in a Copa Del Rey final press conference that "Valverde should stay on" and hoped he would, looking sheepish and not at peace, refusing to blame Valverde's Waterloo at Anfield on the man himself, taking the politically correct and truly logical aim at the players themselves.
          The Barca captain understands the movement behind the scenes at the top: he's well aware of the commercial and financial concerns that Bartomeu and the board prioritize more than trophies. And all the board can do to support him is by signing these "galactico-esque" signings every summer that create an unsustainable, top-heavy and misplaced squad, always lacking familiarity and cohesion, constantly draining financial resources that could be better used, and of course, Valverde never starting the right XI to at least benefit from the vast squad.
          So it comes down to this....what will make the board finally man-up and send this coach (incapable of management) packing? 
           Certainly the feeling of dread, current and future agitation and diseased anxiety amongst the players and fans couldn't get any worse without Valverde leaving, right?
            The board may not care about the pulse of the club, yet if Barcelona were to lose to Valencia by a good number of goals in the Copa Del Rey final, surely Valverde wouldn't stay on, right??? 
          Surely a loss of that magnitude again (a third catastrophic and shameful capitulation in two seasons) with the best player in the world and one of the thickest, sickest and uber-talented squads in the world would see an avalanche of criticism heaped upon the club's hierarchy that it couldn't be ignored.
           They batted an eyelash, arched an eyebrow and pissed in the wind in reaction to what happened at Anfield, but losing the one trophy the club seem to prioritize over all others (domestic cups), the one trophy they're able to placate the locals with, (after a level of dismay and agony the club hasn't seen since 2002), surely we wouldn't see Valverde continue, right????
             Barca fans should be willing their team to defeat on Saturday.

President Bartomeu is the puppet-master of all that is wrong

          It won't be for the faint of heart, but it is about the club's future, it's about giving Lionel Messi the support and manager he deserves; It's about acknowledging the Malcolms, the Alenas' and the Puigs' of our squad, it's about gearing towards a future that has to replace each and every one of these core stars that have represented and defined the club of Barcelona for a decade plus....it's a project that is meant to be calculated, big-picture oriented and built to last.
           ....it's a project that Valverde hasn't even attempted so far, leaving the last two seasons of FC Barcelona in a limbo of uncertainty while unnecessary miles are packed on to the 30+ year old legs of the core Barcelona stars and nothing but the bench for the youth products that should be learning (on the pitch) from the best.
            So yes, it's not dramatic in the least to assume that the future of this club we love so much rests in the feet of the players on the pitch on Saturday. 

"LOL! And they thought we would fire you for losing? MUHAHA!"

             Something tells me there is no way in hell Lionel Messi and co. would take the pitch in a final with anything on the mind other than winning another trophy, however the pride of these veterans needs to be set aside for a day and the love they claim to have for this club needs to rear its head. 
            If it was so easy for them to appear anonymous in the match of the season, against an opponent missing its two best players and starting left back for 45 minutes...if they can absolutely disengage in a match against Liverpool, with a 3-0 lead and their first Champions League final appearance in four years on the line, surely they could capitulate and pretend to try once again, this time for the sake of the fans...for the sake of the club.
            Bartomeu doesn't have the balls to get rid of Valverde, a puppet-master will never destroy their puppet, a ventriloquist would never rip the head off of its dummy...but if the pressure was too much to take, wouldn't Bartomeu do the smart business decision and placate the fans' demands?
            I don't trust him...the last bastion of trust in this club I have loved for so long is in the players themselves and hope for a silent mutiny that would see the stubborn, awful visage of Ernesto Valverde finally walk out those doors. For a man who was coached by Cruyff, he apparently didn't listen to a single word the Dutch master uttered in his two seasons at the club (1988-1990)...there's a reason he didn't stick around long enough to be part of the Dream Team in 1992, the man is incapable of the cerebral thinking that always edges out the best from the good.
            Quit on us one more time, guys...maybe...just maybe it'll be the silent mutiny we've needed for two seasons....give the fans the biggest trophy of the season: a clean slate and a brighter future without Ernesto Valverde.


By Lonn Phillips Sullivan
uninterruptedsportsodyssey.blogspot.com