Are we crazy, a.k.a. “Expectations make Baby Kxevin cry”

By: Kevin | April 7th, 2008

So, we’ve been wrestling with the burden of expectations all season long. Last season we grabbed Zambrotta, Gudjohnsen and Thuram. This past summer it was Abidal, Toure Yaya and Thierry Henry. Couple this with Krkic, the 1,000+goal wonder and Giovani Dos Santos, the Mexican Miracle, and we were all set up to steamroll the world, right? Right?

We were going to win La Liga, Champions League, Copa del Rey, then hop our jet and qualify for Europe in the English Premier League, just for a bit of excitement. We were stacked. Loaded. Like an aging Hollywood star with the keys to the Botox cabinet.

Those (like me) who were at the semi-official season-opening Gamper Trophy match saw us destroy an Inter Milan side that will be Serie A champs this season. And the match wasn’t even as close as the score indicated.

A lovely setup fell to Eto’o, and his lovely sliding attempt resulted in….comprehensive, unmitigated horror. He lay there on the pitch and was stretchered off. And he was gone. For months and months. And the Fantastic Four became a pipe dream.

And then came Ronaldinho. Out of shape, the black sheep, the Wascally Bwazilian, whatever you want to call him, he wasn’t the man he had been.

Then Messi got hurt. Then Henry’s back. Then Yaya’s back. Then Abidal’s brain. And suddenly, what we were expecting to be a season of unfettered delight turned to dung.

Turns out that the 0-0 draw away to Racing was more indicative of what was to come than the 5-0 thumping of Inter. We spanked Bilbao, tied Osasuna, then beat Sevilla, Zaragoza, Levante and Atletico. We were rolling, until the doors fell off at Villarreal.

So what happened, and should we even be asking?

Football is a cruel, frustrating thing. It hurts to be a fan, sometimes physically. Are we really right to expect anything from the lads except to show up, run around and try to win the stinkin’ match?

As everyone knows, I want to sell everyone and their mamas, starting with Ronaldinho and ending with the mechanic for the Barca Bus. But is that the answer? Or is the real answer that NO team could have borne up to the demands and expectations that FC Barcelona, our beloved, had to wrestle with this season, and that burden, in the end, was what wore them down?

We are still in with a shot at the league and Champions League, which seems bizarre in consideration of our….erm….erratic form. Think how far gone we’d have been had we played to our capabilities. But could we have, even if everyone had remained healthy? Is the pressure on a top-flight side, particularly an international (and internationally loved) conglomerate such as our Blaugrana just too much?

Or was it just bum luck with the injuries this year?

Good questions, right? So what does everyone think?