After years of putting the club before the country, it is now ‘Family’. Argentina. Barcelona ‘by Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi’s severed relationship with the Barcelona football club has been repaired, but the wounds have reopened and the season has yet to start for the club. That can only be bad news for Ronald Koeman.

Messi’s reaction to the departure of Luis Suárez is no surprise. The fact that you have made your discontent public, perhaps it is, shows that you no longer have any interest in being an ambassador for an institution for which, at least all the time you have been under your current leadership, you have lost respect.

President Josep Bartomeu will leave no later than March and his relationship with Messi was already beyond salvation. Koeman’s fate at the club depends on it, and now he will wait to find out how this plays out on the pitch.

Koeman already had an XI without Messi in mind when Messi’s signing for Manchester collapsed. After all, he is delighted to have the best player in the world at his disposal, but he has certain drawbacks. Koeman would have been the undisputed king of the castle without Messi. The captain who stays creates an uncomfortable share of power.

And perhaps just as unsettling for Koeman is that, from the vote to keep him as captain, it is clear that Messi still has the dressing room on his side. He has lost his two best friends in the squad, but neither the departure of Arturo Vidal nor that of Suárez will diminish his prestige, as long as the possibility remains that the team’s best chance of winning things remains intrinsically linked to Messi.

Nobody in Messi’s career has given him more assists than Suárez and it was like one more pass to goal on Thursday when he spoke of players who want to stay at the club and not be able to, and the players want to leave, in addition to not being there. able to.

Messi took the pass and did not miss the goal when he published his feelings without cuts on Instagram. Bartomeu inherited a team with the greatest forward in its history. He could be forgiven for losing Neymar. Even Messi must realize that Neymar jumped. But Suarez has been pushed.

The club could have signed his replacement, but let him play during his senior year. He proposed to give an interview to El País last month in which he made it clear that it would not be a problem.

But a campaign of whispers suggesting that Suarez’s mere presence would backfire and that his influence now bordered on the toxic was used by the club to try to justify his move and take him off the salary account. Suarez responded Thursday when he spoke of lies and leaks. Messi supported him on Friday.

What may help Koeman is that Suarez smiled and shook his head Thursday when asked if he thought the Dutch manager had made the decision to transfer him or if he came from the club. The implication is that Koeman was simply complying with the will of the board when he made a brief phone call to the club’s third all-time top scorer and told him he was above the requirements. However, he is still Bartomeu’s man.

For Messi now there is an important change of priority. For years he has put Barcelona ahead of playing for his country. Now it’s a lot of Family, Argentina, Barcelona. In that order. All you need is the ‘Gareth Bale style’ flag to stick it on.

Fueled by anger on the board, we can see him start the season in a positive way. But when the first bumps on the road come up, the head can go down a little faster. Barcelona fans hoping to see him again at his best can only hope that a new president will change the dynamics at the club and thus lift the spirits of their best player.

Running a massive sports institution like Barcelona is not easy. A global fan base and budget as large as any in the world do not guarantee peace, success, and continued prosperity. Bartomeu will soon leave the club without any of those three things assured.

Of all the jobs he had to do successfully, keeping Messi happy was number one. And, as Messi has always argued, it was never just about money. It was about building properly around them: Messi’s opinion now is: they make a bad signing after a bad signing for the better part of five years, and when a season without trophies causes an exit, my partner and one of the best signings they have done is the first on their list.