The team that sustained the club without Leo Messi's net

No one will dare to liquidate a ruined club that has a league champion team. There is relief at the Camp Nou. There was a time when some employees feared for the payroll before the queue of creditors that stalk Barça. There is not a day that does not discuss the corporate model of FC Barcelona after the ordinary mismatch exceeds 200 million, the debt amounts to more than 1,200 million and the League warns that to achieve fair play 250 million will be needed. The reputation was also tarnished by the Negreira case. The Barça brand, however, resists after winning a title that in the boom years did not guarantee the continuity of the coach, as Valverde knows. Now, however, a parade through the city is even announced once an elusive crown has been recovered from 2018-2019.

The players, some of whom were accused of looting the club with Bartomeu's consent, have saved Laporta from an extreme predicament. Ter Stegen, Pedri, Araujo and De Jong were more decisive than most of the summer signings for an amount of 158 million – more than 200 if you add those of the winter market with Ferran. The inheritance was in any case so poisoned that it took away the desire to stand for the 2021 elections to a carousel of notables of civil society in Catalonia. Laporta, on the other hand, was encouraged and now aspires to help him justify a management equally questioned by those who measure the health of the clubs and more by the League.

The president chose to simplify the organizational chart, inspired by Florentino, and entrusts himself to a family environment and friends after the disagreement he has had with different professionals who have left without knowing the reason why they entered the Camp Nou. There have been changes in strategic departments and sporting director Mateu Alemany has announced his departure in the same way that CEO Ferran Reverter has already left, for not remembering the retirement of Jaume Giró. The figure that remains of those who joined, needing as Laporta was guarantors and after a legal framework that saved his proclamation, is the economic vice president Romeu: "The operating account must be sustainable without the need for extraordinary operations," he announces. "You can only sign if there are transfers," Romeu concludes. The sale of players such as Ansu Fati, Ferran Torres or Kessié can be a solution after there are no levers or mortgages to resort to and the Espai Barça has been activated. The remodeling of the Camp Nou, whose financing was valued at 1,450 million, has caused many suspicions – there are partners who ask the board for explanations – and it is known that the move next season to Montjuïc will mean losing 55 million. There will also be a 15% cut in the professional sections, as well as economic constraints in general, and more layoffs are feared after Barça TV stops broadcasting in June.

The way Laporta has to run the club was already discussed in 2008 when he overcame a motion of censure, after a crisis that ended with the departure of the most professional managers and the entry of the closest, the end of the virtuous circle of 2003. The president's term ended in 2010 with a liability action filed by Rosell's board. The incoming board announced that Barça was ruined and the outgoing board presented a surplus of 11 million.

No one disputed, however, the sporting success achieved in 2009 after Laporta bet on Guardiola as Rijkaard's replacement in 2008. The icon of success is now the league achieved with Xavi after dispensing with Koeman. The president had no problem hiring Xavi and Jordi Cruyff, the leaders of his electoral rival Víctor Font in 2021, in a decision that dismantled the possible opposition and demonstrated the ability to metabolize the Barça that Laporta has acquired. The title helps to mitigate the economic despair and maintains the prestige of a team that on the other hand has remained for the second consecutive year outside Europe. Barça now need to reshape their squad to improve their performance – only five players had been champions before: Ter Stegen, Busquets, Alba, Sergi Roberto and Dembélé. The priority is to be able to register Araujo, Gavi and Balde, that his viability plan is approved by the League and that UEFA does not leave him out of the Champions League.

Despite the distrust of his numbers, Laporta has managed to make his exercise of tightrope walking, necessarily noisy to attest to life, be seen with indulgence while the team sustains the club before the lurking of the powers that be and the astonishment of Madrid. The next somersault is to resist in Montjuïc without the field factor – the Camp Nou has been this year's great ally of Barça. Laporta seems to like to have Messi as a net (or so he seems to play) after surviving without the 10.

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