Is Barcelona the only club in the world where I could explain to a neutral observer the level of chaotic and acrimoninary threat from which they suffer and still predict that they are favorites to win two or three national trophies this season?
Probably … yes.
Then, despite the benefits of Spanish champions that sign Marcus Rashford, Joan García and Rony Bardghji, it is worth lifting the Blaugrana carpet and examining the problems that are being dragged certainly under it.
Do you remember Nico Williams Fiasco?
The summer of Barcelona was marked by the end of Spain that retired from a transfer, which the club thought that it was done and dusted, because its agent, not unjustifiably, demanded a guarantee that the 24 -year -old would register as a Barça player on a specific date.
Williams' entourage had witnessed the Board of the President of the Disorder Joan Laporta made of registering Dani Olmo last season, when the Blaugrana They could not meet their security and tranquility demands, the player renewed his contract with Athletic Club.
The key issue here, as it was a year ago, is that Barcelona's counters claim confident that they have reached a clean health bill with respect to the rules of the Fair Fair (FFP) of LaLiga. LaLiga, until now, continues to have a different opinion.
To give it a visual image: Barça is walking tall with a swollen chest in public, but in the knee mixed with hands together in private prayer, and LaLiga bosses are scratching their chin with skepticism and doubt.
At the time of writing, with ten days until the season begins, none of the new Hansi Flick players (or Wojciech Szczęsny or Gerard Martín, who have been given new contracts) are still eligible to present for the champions. Barcelona has signed the new additions (or in the case of Rashford), but they do not have the certification of LaLiga that will be allowed to play.
If that confirmation is not obtained when the transfers market is closed, then those players would not be eligible until January. Unlikely, but an objective reality.
Then, the club has been announcing, and then shamefully postponing, its return to the Nou camp for more a year. (That is not exaggerated. He is eighteen months ago they predict with confidence to celebrate his 125th anniversary, which came and came last November, in his home renewed and rebuilt).
However, they will play their traditional and very beloved tournament of the friendly season with its 5,000 capacity Johan Cruyff stadium instead of the Camp Nou as announced above.
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Once finished, the stadium will look and feel quite extraordinary.
But the immediate plan was that the first team competed there in front of a maximum capacity of 30,000 (lower than in its temporary home of the Montjuic stadium and a little less than a third of what Camp Nou will have once completed). That is not optimal for fans or players, and does not create a hostile atmosphere for visiting teams.
The problem is that nobody knows with certainty when Camp Nou will be open for business.
The champions have persuaded LaLiga that their first three competitive games (Mallorca, Levante, Rayo Vallecano) must be played outside the home to give Barça time to complete the various security certificates and the bureaucracy of the local council that are currently not well resolved, but those men and women occupied in the Nou Croovers Camp Corridors of power are larger, a bigger threat.
The UEFA Champions League begins in mid -September, precisely when Barcelona is scheduled to play their first league match at home, organizing Valencia. Good luck to finish all the final details on time while meeting the criteria established by the city, LaLiga and UEFA authorities for a safe, modern and well functional stage.
Once again, it would emphasize that the club is broadcasting safe noises on having its task correctly. But, here is the threat of the day of the final judgment.
If, for any unforeseen reason, some of the criteria are not fulfilled and Barcelona cannot play its first match at the Casa de la League of the Champions League in Camp Nou, then where they are more than choosing, the UEFA rules would mean that the UEFA rules would mean that UEFA rules would mean that UEFA rules would mean that the UEFA rules would mean Blaugrana You must play all His games at the Casa de la Liga de Champions in that same land until January.
It is just a possible setback, but if it materialized, shame, recrimination and financial losses would occur.
Asked by Mundo Deportivo this week if Camp Nou will be ready on time, the director of Barcelona, Joan Soler, replied: “What we are clear is that we will return to Camp Nou. We must not establish a date, because that becomes an additional pressure. Building a stage of this magnitude is colossal, but we must be done.
“We have to guarantee the safety of the people who attend. Until there is adequate certification, we will not return to Camp Nou. We are going as quickly as possible, because the club needs it, both from a sports perspective, so that the team can play games at home and in terms of income.”
Has Barcelona asked UEFA in silence if they could also ensure that they played their first two games of the Champions League outside the home, as they are doing at the national level? They have already requested that their first game be on the road.
Last but not least, Barça and his veteran 11-year-old goalkeeper Marc-André Ter Stegen fall in love with each other, and everything is becoming a bit aggressive.
Ter Stegen's behavior towards the end of last season specifically enraged the film. They can share a nationality and be ancient allies, but Ter Stegen fell into a strict Flick disciplinary code.
The goalkeeper felt bold enough to show his disgust for not playing enough once he had returned to the physical condition, and the coach drastically changed his attitude towards the captain of the first 33 -year -old team. What has followed is that Garcia is now seen as the initial goalkeeper, Szczęsny has renewed his contract, Ter Stegen told him that it was time to find a new club and there is a massive debate about whether the German international will retain his captaincy.
Beyond Barcelona simply with respect to Garcia as the way to follow, they want to move from Ter Stegen, which would significantly reduce their salary bill and allow them to pacify LaLiga and register at Rashford, García and the promising Bardghji.
But Ter Stegen, who has a very lucrative contract with three remaining years, is intelligent, stubborn and upset by the way he has been treated. In addition, Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann has made it clear that in a FIFA World Cup season, Ter Stegen, if he is in shape and regularly presents for his club, will be the Mannschaft'S No. 1.
The bets, for Barcelona and their five -time LaLiga winner, are super high.
Last month, Ter Stegen decided that he needed a retouching in a previous setback operation. It was completed last week in France, and the argument now, between it and Laporta, is whether the recovery will be three, four or five months.
This week, a meeting is scheduled with the club that needs to beg your seriously treated player to accept that it will leave until January, instead of returning to training in November. The difference is whether Barcelona can then Parlay Ter Stegen absence (while still paying it completely) in a financial dispensation of LaLiga so that they can recipe books and meet the FFP criteria to register their new players.
It is a trick they used last year to register Olmo and Pau Victor for six months when Andreas Christensen was injured. If they can, it is a victory for their tactics.
If they cannot, and Ter Stegen is not only injured, but cannot use its absence to alter its FFP status, then its treatment with it becomes Operation Pryo Moto.
“We are making adequate progress to register the new players, we are convinced that we will achieve it,” Laporta said during the Barcelona tour of South Korea. “Using Ter Stegen's absence for Parlay with LaLiga [so] That we can register that Joan García is not the only route, it is the most direct. “
Not necessarily the most reassuring words, but maybe it is better than a lapporta to speak prudence than being optimistic.
The trial times for the champions, but, I have to admit that I will argue in this space in the next few days and weeks that are my best bet to win LaLiga again, even before an interesting and renewed challenge of Real Madrid.
Stay tuned.
