It was after the first Clásico of the season when Ilkay Gündogan appeared before the media that had traveled to Montjuïc and began to practice self-criticism, like the hippies. We were all petrified. Nobody knew what to do, how to manage that outburst of sincerity with a Germanic accent, which always imposes more, to the point that the partner and culé fan with at least 20 years of seniority wanted to die. Directly. Without palliatives. Where had something like this been seen? So many blows fell on the midfielder that he did not open his mouth again until yesterday, once again in charge of putting his team in front of the mirror and stopping the temptation to report a new conspiracy.
It happens that Gündogan comes from a football culture where everyone takes responsibility for their actions: the guardiolism. Barça also comes from there, or came, a long time ago. So much so that it is often difficult to remember everything without a touch of distrust, as if no one could be one hundred percent sure that, in fact, it was us. Don’t tell Gündogan that the referee should not have sent off Ronald Araujo for a very clear expulsion action. And if someone prefers to believe the word of a commentator dressed in a braid on television rather than, what do I know, in his own eyes, well, that’s him and his demand ratio. Gündogan is not going to be convinced of the impossible by the tremendous culé, nor by the alienated blows to the chest, nor by the inheritance of the nuñism entrenched to the core. To Araujo, yes. And Xavi Hernández, apparently, too.
Listening to the Barça coach in defeat is a punishment worthy of study. Like walking barefoot through the embers or allowing yourself to be crucified in the town square during Holy Week. A question of faith, because from reason there is no possibility of buying a speech that always ends up blaming others: the grass, the sun, the calendar, the journalists, the referee, the WHO… If the top person in charge of the team is not able to recognize that with eleven players Luis Enrique had already found a hole behind Pedri’s back that looked like the well of Darvaza, in Turkmenistan, because then Barça has a problem. Not Luis Enrique, nor the inhabitants of Turkmenistan: Barça. And if your coach is the first to be removed from the game as soon as someone screws up – by the way, being removed as soon as things go wrong is starting to seem like a rather alarming pattern of behavior – then Barça has another problem. And they all turn out to be the same problem.
The lack of self-criticism is going to destroy a project that was born with few intentions and many hopes, some caused by Xavi himself, who combined everything that the Barça fans expect from their coach since he discovered the straight path of the cruyffism. He has the idea. Or he should have, and his character was never poorly served, so there was no one better than him to direct a project that started winning a League on the second try: not that bad. Then everything else would arrive, everything accessory, everything negative. And that is why it is good that a footballer like Gündogan goes out at a press conference to bell the cat. Avoid confusion. And above all, avoid hair, which is what anyone who comes will least want to encounter, if anyone comes in the end, with the excuse of replacing Xavi.
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