The numbers are very easy to explain with the score in your favour, and you can even boast that if they are not better it is because they have not wanted to be, as Laporta well knows. The president spoke from the top of the League to the members and also to the opposition that is beginning to see itself understanding precisely that the numbers do not add up and the health of Barça is at risk. It is already known that counting is not the same as interpreting an economic balance sheet, especially when there is a transfer of powers involved, as was seen precisely on the day that Laporta gave way to Rosell in 2010. The outgoing president boasted of benefits and the incoming president denounced a debt that ended in a liability action so poorly planned that it became a boomerang for Rosell and proved Laporta right.
The president has always been an administrator who is as controversial as his sporting criteria have been praised, since the signing of Rijkaard and then Guardiola with the advice of Cruyff. Now he hopes to get it right with Flick, even though he has awarded the signing of the German coach to Deco in an attempt to vindicate the figure of a sporting director who acts conditioned by Barça’s lack of liquidity. There have been no more signings than Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor because there was no possibility of registering any more footballers in the League. Laporta’s roadmap since his return has been presided over by marketing, by moving several players and by the inexhaustible source of resources from La Masia, which has now become the pillar not only of the lower teams, but also of Flick’s professional squad.
We will see what happens in the winter depending on the League and the Champions League. Laporta is buying time and, for now, he is enjoying the moment so much that he can justify Gündogan’s departure for a sporting reason with economic consequences and not for economic reasons that also affect sporting ones, according to the footballer’s own account upon his return to Manchester. The president knows, however, that it is easier for the club to obtain resources when the team is working than in the difficult times experienced last season, which ended in a draw and with the departure of Xavi, the successor of the dismissed Koeman. We must not forget either that the institution will begin to celebrate its 125th anniversary in November and that the fans will already be able to return during the season to a renovated Camp Nou that has become one of the icons of Barcelona.
The social activation is already noticeable in Montjuïc after a year of leave and also in various groups critical of Laporta’s management. The president had a veiled memory for both: he was very generous with the members, who have not been affected by the crisis even though they are owners of the club, and vigilant with the opposition and with those who, in his opinion, want the bad things for Barça. Those who disagree with Laporta highlight precisely the president’s poor management and therefore will need more numbers than words, once it has been seen that lies expire at the Camp Nou. They should not forget in any case that the president dominates the apparatus and the keys necessary to exercise his mandate, however difficult it may be to govern Barça.
Laporta has won the elections and he has also lost them, he promoted a motion of censure and also suffered one against him and right now, on the way to the Barcelona festivities that have awakened the presumed pre-candidates, he seems to feel more comfortable than ever in a position that he has designed to his measure and that barely needs company after the departure of the club of hundreds of executives and some directors who arrived in 2021. The president did not even need to quote Nico Williams to embellish his last speech or admit that, at the end of the day, once the levers and mortgages have been exhausted, the same money as always is still missing, the same money that will now arrive faster and better because Barça is the leader of the League.
