adminWhen Real Sociedad scored against Barcelona after just one minute on Sunday night, television cameras honed in on the Barcelona bench, where coach Luis Enrique had left almost £200 million worth of his squad.
Neymar turned to Lionel Messi and said: “You had better get warmed-up”.
The star player’s joke at the expense of his manager was symptomatic of the chaos that currently reigns at Barcelona. Enrique is set to hold talks with president Josep Maria Bartameu on Wednesday.
The manager will speak to the press at 1pm, with his boss holding a press conference separately in the Richard Maxenchs press room of the Nou Camp at 4pm.
Barcelona began 2015 in turmoil after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld FIFA’s ban on them signing players for the next 12 months and are now in full-blown meltdown with Messi one of several senior players at loggerheads with Luis Enrique, who could be replaced as early as Wednesday despite the board’s original intention to give him two games to save himself.
The players’ biggest complaint towards the manager, who is yet to name an unchanged team this season, is that they don’t know where they stand with him.
Messi, Neymar and Dani Alves were all given two extra days’ holiday over Christmas only to then be told when they returned that they had not trained enough to play the first game of the year.
Messi’s desire to play in every match — something that Pep Guardiola nearly always made sure he did — means he took the decision badly and failed to show for training on Monday complaining of gastroenteritis.
Sick to the stomach of his manager would be another interpretation; the two men are believed to have argued both during Friday’s training session and on Sunday in San Sebastian.
Monday’s session was open to the public with school children still on their Christmas holidays allowed to watch their heroes train, but Messi was at home following Chelsea on Instagram instead.
He also follows Beyonce and Manchester City so it would be taking it too far to see such a move on social media as a “come and get me” message but the timing was telling all the same.
Chelsea fans hopeful he could end up at their club — he also followed Cesc Fabregas and Filipe Luis on Instagram — should probably bear in mind that when Messi is unhappy at Barcelona it tends to be the people he is unhappy with that move on.
Enrique should be given this week’s cup game with Elche and Sunday’s showdown with Fernando Torres’ Atletico Madrid to save his job but Messi is by no means alone in being unhappy at the head coach.
Gerard Pique, new signing Ivan Rakitic and Neymar are others and, far from just being personal gripes, there are overriding concerns over the way the coach has the team playing.
The manager who took over in the summer has a reputation for falling out with star players. He upset both Francesco Totti and Daniele De Rossi at Roma and, with Sporting Director Andoni Zubizarreta already fired and assistant Carles Puyol having quit soon after, the spotlight now falls on him.
President Josep Bartomeu is also under pressure, not just to change the coach but to call elections.
Prospective rival candidate for the presidency Agusti Benedito said on Monday night on Spanish radio: “It’s clear that this board has weighed up the possibility of selling Messi.”
Benedito, who received the second-most votes in the last election, was alluding to the theory that the current regime have deliberately antagonised the star in recent seasons, knowing how much selling the player would swell the coffers, but also being aware his departure would have to appear to be engineered by him and not them.
Former Barcelona striker Hristo Stoichkov also waded in to criticise those in power at the club. He said: “Bartomeu understands basketball but not very much about football. He is not a President, he’s an administrator who has landed the job because the person in charge (Sandro Rosell) was a bottler who ran away.”
The outspoken former Barça dream team member also criticised the outgoing Zubizarreta saying: “What signings have been made? Why did they not go for (Toni) Kroos and Isco?”
He also defended Luis Suarez saying: “It’s not Suarez’s fault, he is a natural goalscorer and they are killing him.”
The big summer signing from Liverpool has suffered in Enrique’s ever-changing line-ups and has so far scored only one league goal.
Barcelona president Bartomeu will publicly address supporters’ concerns on Wednesday and announce a new Sporting Director with Fiorentina’s Eduardo Macia an in-house option and Jordi Roura the leading candidates.
Macia is a former Liverpool scout, who has also worked at Valencia and Olympiacos while Roura took over first team affairs when the late Tito Vilanova fell ill. For the next 12 months whoever steps in will have very little to do in view of Barca’s transfer ban.
Some of Zubizarreta’s harshest critics have already questioned the timing of his dismissal.
“For a club that can’t sign players, he is the perfect Sporting Director,” said one, recalling the disastrous summer recruitments of Brazilian full-back Douglas and former Arsenal defender Thomas Vermaelen who have started one league game between them. — Dailymail.
Online Reporter