A fitting end to a dismal season for Barcelona

Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images

Pathetic from start to end

It’s not often I’m lost for words - as you might already be aware - but what on earth can you say about that ‘performance’ against Osasuna.

On a night when Barca could still have taken La Liga until the last day, they looked completely disinterested for the most part.

It was a damning indictment of the Quique Setien era, which has been a disaster from start to finish.

Post-lockdown, we’ve seen a nine-point swing in favour of Real Madrid - in just 10 games.

I’m not too interested in the VAR conspiracy theorists who will suggest that Los Blancos have had the rub of the green in that respect.

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Maybe they have, but that’s to deflect away from why the league was lost from Barca’s point of view, and it wasn’t solely because of a perceived VAR bias to our main rivals.

Failure to sack Ernesto Valverde at the start of the season was the first mistake that Josep Maria Bartomeu made.

Our worst start for 25 years wasn’t the platform to go on and build a title-winning side, although until football began again after the lockdown we were, incredibly, still in the box seat.

That in itself showed you what a poor side Real Madrid had been to that point this season.

All we had to do was win our own games and we were champions. Again.

But no.

The players need to shoulder their fair share of the blame too of course. Not for off-field incidents such as the Abidal fiasco either.

Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images

In a number of matches this season, a worryingly large number of first-team players haven’t shown up.

You can count on the fingers of one hand those that can be absolved of any blame too. Who have given of their best right throughout the campaign. And that, in truth, tells you all you need to know.

By the time Bartomeu has packed up his things and gone on his merry way in just about a year or so, the damage both on and off of the pitch could well prove to be irreversible.

Be honest... even with Xavi Hernandez in charge, can you see this team, with or without Neymar and Lautaro Martinez, getting anywhere close to some more silverware?

We are very definitely coming to the end of an era here, and what a shame it’s ending as it is.

Frankly, we’ve got what we deserved in 2019/20. Nothing.

Source: barcablaugranes.com