From the Mixed-Up Files of Mr. FC Barcelona

By: Isaiah | October 4th, 2007

If you read the Barcelona-based football press, you’re probably pretty scared about the future well-being of Barcelona’s players. Both Sport and the infinitely more reliable and less over-dramatic El Mundo Deportivo today have sounded the red alert sirens here and here, respectively, over the injuries Barcelona is having. Both blame the FCB medical corps for straining the players too much (while adding, somewhat glibbly, I think, that it’s also the game-heavy calendar), but it’s EMD that’s much more over-the-top about it’s headline for the first time I can remember. “Alarm!” The headline screams, pointing towards an injury crisis the team has no shot at recovering from, while Sport more calmly asks, if alarmingly, “Why are there so many muscle injuries?”

Sport points out that the pre-game warmups are considered too light by a lot of people (who “they” are, I’m not sure), that it’s generally accepted by these same unnamed people that Barca’s players aren’t properly warmed up, they’re still frigid, if you will, when they get on the field and so they get injured. At least Sport immediately points out that this after Eto’o got injured in the Gamper, the general consensus was that he’d warmed up too much. So it’s both or it’s neither, apparently. Or it’s something more serious. I suggest we just blame it on Real Madrid, accuse Calderon of poisoning the water in the locker room (he’ll deny it, proof positive that he’s guilty), and then get on with our recuperation. Not even sure why I brought this up. Slow news day, I guess.

Wait, haven’t we won 5 in a row, including a victory on Wednesday in which we lost both our starting center back and his replacement? Crisis? Don’t talk to me about crisis until something bad happens on the field. I’m not over-confident about the Atletico game (I’m currently thinking draw), but a backline made up of Puyol and Milito, well, that sounds like 1/2 of a perfect defense. Put Abidal on the wing and we’ve got 3/4…And with Oleguer, we revert back to 1/2. Atletico doesn’t play a “vertical” game, but rather a building game, with few headers. Milito’s impeccable positioning should help out a lot with cutting down on the number of throughballs that wind up in dangerous positions, while Puyol’s ability to recover from mistakes should shut down a lot more opportunities. Granted that Zapater found himself with about 300 yards of space during the Zaragoza game on a simple counter and he duly put the chance in the back of the net, a situation we can’t allow against Atleti. More on this game in a preview tomorrow.

Some fun news bits, in the midst of this dreary season of injury-laden newsflashes: Xavi is now holds the record for most international appearances for FCB. By appearing in the Stuttgart game, Xavi passed Migueli with 85 total appearances. FCB’s official page has the story. It’s great that Xavi has such longevity and that FCB has been in such a rich vein of form for the last batch of years, allowing Xavi to appear in 4 different competitions.

Okay, okay, I’ve put this off for a while now (aka forgot), but now I’ll deal with it. Reader and occassional poster John asked me a question while I was on vacation, quite some time ago. It’s relavent again since I’m short of ideas right now and the international break is coming up again. The question was what I think about this Laporta quote:

“It’s shameful that the clubs have to hand over the players to the national teams without any compensation. The national teams make money with our players and I think that measures have to be taken. This matter is being discussed in UEFA and in FIFA but I don’t see the willingness to solve it, when it could be done straight away. If it isn’t sorted out, we’ll have to consider, in some way or the other, not handing over players to the national teams.”

I used to believe that FAs owed teams for injuries incurred during international duty, but what dissuaded me from espousing this view was the question of whether or not the Ivory Coast should be responsible for the salaries of players like Didier Drogba or (more relevantly to FCB), Toure Yaya. Compared to what the Ivory Coast FA must have in its coffers, a single week of Didier Drogba’s salary would be massive, so that’s out. It’s not economically viable. Not only that, but the richest clubs would be the ones who benefit by getting their expenditures reduced during crucial periods of the season, meaning they could increase profits and increase off-season purchases, further cementing their grips on league titles and their places in European competition. While it would totally blow if some of Barcelona’s players were injured on international duty in a couple of weeks, that FCB would suddenly have to deal with being a regular team for once wouldn’t be strictly terrible. I would dislike it, but not because I thought the individual FAs or even FIFA as a whole owed the club compensation. Rather, I would dislike being a mediocre team.

The thing about being a great club is that you have great players and great players get called up for international duty. If you’re not willing to risk losing a great player because of injuries sustained during callups, don’t buy that player. Simple as that. I understand the other side of the argument, that they’re investments, that not having the players can blow a chance to win a title, so monetary compensation is in order, but I don’t buy it because I know that the richest clubs have all the advantages. FCB may not have won last year, but they’re back in it this year, as they will be every year. Look at Real Sociedad and all the great things that have happened to them since they came in 2nd a few years back. I know the club I support is rich, has more advantages than most other clubs on earth, so I don’t take it for granted, but rather just enjoy it and I try not to whine too much when things go south for us. The injuries we have and may have in the future just mean our 2nd team needs to step it up. How many teams can boast that their 2nd string striker is Thierry Freaking Henry? Our third string is Eidur Gudjohnsen. Fourth, Giovani Dos Santos. Can Villareal say that?

So that’s my answer, late though it may be.