BARCELONA – Luis Suárez scoring goals for Atlético de Madrid is the definition of the depression that Barcelona is suffering. The Uruguayan was convicted by Josep Maria Bartomeu, Ramón Planes convicted him and Ronald Koeman executed him, in a role of executioner with whom he had nothing to say about sports planning at the club upon arrival at Camp Nou.
There are people in Barcelona who already suspect that Suárez will succeed David Villa, who gave the club away to Atlético in the summer of 2013, convinced he had no place in a Barça where Neymar had arrived and Alexis Sánchez. And that he eventually conquered the Rojiblanco League. Scoring 13 goals, a modest figure … But fundamental in gold victories against Celta, Athletic, Granada or Real Sociedad.
Barça seems to be looking the other way, believing that the Uruguayan’s departure was essential to lighten staff pay and change locker room operation. It was thought that with Ansu Fati it would be enough to forget about Suarez, but when the young team player was injured, everything fell like a house of cards.
With 16 league games behind it, Barça had 41 goals last season, 8 from Suárez, who at this point reached 10 and 9 respectively in the two previous seasons. His theoretical successor, Martin Braithwaite, adds two more. And the team takes note. It is not remembered since 2003, the last time he scored fewer goals.
IMMEDIATELY
When 41 years have passed since the signing of a Roberto Dinamita who became an indisputable star in Brazil and Barcelona through the back door two goals and left three months later, it is striking that Barça has been unable to find a successor to Suárez. And, even more so, that he gave it to a rival of the first order.
“If he goes to a direct rival and Barcelona pays his salary,” Leo Messi claimed in his interview with La Sexta not many days ago, realizing that anything done to the Uruguayan is a bad joke.
Barça signed Roberto Dinamita in January 1980 because Hasi Krankl, the top scorer of the previous season, had run out of fuel. The Brazilian’s invention did not work (patience was not a virtue in the club) and the president decided at the end of the season to sign an old desire of the club, Quini, already in the latter part of his career, but that still remains becoming a more than remarkable performance over the next two years.
From there, and it’s been five years, scorers like Archibald (a major global mistake avoiding Hugo Sánchez’s signing), Lineker, Hughes (another monumental failure), Julio Salinas, Romario, Kodro through Barça, Ronaldo, Anderson (accompanied by Rivaldo to fill the void of the phenomenon), Kluivert, the also fiascos Alfonso and Dani, Eto’o, Ibrahimovic, Villa of Alexis … Until Luis Suárez, the one who broke all records.
Always, with more or less success, Barcelona sought and found a successor of level when the stage of that striker who had had in the club was over. But with Suarez, the mold was broken. The Uruguayan, a close friend of Leo Messi in the locker room and to say that many have had a bad influence character in recent times, took a Leonine extension contract from Josep Maria Bartomeu and Barça’s sports management knew neither could nor dared to seek him a first-class deputy.
Munir or Alcácer walked next to him, unable to overshadow him, even though his dismissal in Europe recently dragged the whole team down. And even when he was injured in January 2020 and underwent surgery after the Spanish Supercup, the club was able to take the step forward.
While Borussia Dortmund bets 45 million euros on the signing of Erling Haaland, Barcelona already waited in February for yet another injury from Dembélé to pay 18 million for Martin Braithwaite, a hard-working striker … of Leganés, with whom had scored 13 goals in 48 games. And there were those who, without blushing, proclaimed that the Dane could be that replacement for Suárez, who fired the club in some way after the Lisbon disaster.
“Suárez’s stage was over”, it was argued to explain his departure, without thinking that it had been given to a rival, even paying him the salary and without giving the project that Koeman would lead a first-class replacement because the box, it’s empty at Camp Nou.
There was and there is no money. And there was nor is there a striker in a Barça who finds it difficult to turn all the opportunities it creates into a goal. In addition to a match between mediocrity and illusion, the tight win in Huesca, as it happened against Eibar, Valencia, Levante, Cádiz or Getafe, reveals that this team is crying out in the desert to restore a fundamental figure ….
And while Suárez continues to score in his own way at Atlético. While he hasn’t broken his bad luck in Europe, currently scoring nine goals in twelve league games and those against Elche (two), Getafe and Alavés have given Simeone’s team six gold points declaring the role of favorite. Little by little, Atlético takes over.
Such is the case with some who talk about cheap demagoguery, while others allude to the lack of a goal and the absence of the Uruguayan. The most shocking fact is simple: Barça has scored 30 goals in 16 league games, their worst record since the 2003-04 season. Given the harshness of that statistic, little more can be added.