Trouble at Barcelona: Are we watching the end of an era?

Poor old André Gomes. He might as well be made to carry a bell through the streets of Barcelona. How quickly it has all turned sour for him. He landed in the Catalan capital during the summer a European champion after Portugal’s heroics in France. He was only 22 years of age.

Huge money was spent on him, potentially stretching to €55 million with add-ons. Great things were expected. It was whispered that he could be a successor for the ageing team captain Andrés Iniesta.

A clause was included in Gomes’s contract about a bonus that would have to be paid out if he wins a Ballon d’Or award. How they laugh now about that notion in Barcelona. They like to boo him from the stands at the Camp Nou, where he has turned in several poor performances and become a lightning rod for fans’ disaffection.

The local press have taken to running articles analysing how much of a loser he is. The team plays better without him; it has won 10 of the 11 games he hasn’t played. He has only scored one goal since joining the club.

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Against Málaga, in Barcelona’s most recent defeat in the league, he failed to intercept one ball. Against Real Sociedad last weekend, in a laboured 3-2 win for Barça, he started but was withdrawn – after another listless outing – with 20 minutes to go.

The media pressed Enrique on why he perseveres with Gomes, particularly at the expense of Iniesta. Enrique bristled, rising to the bait. They were comparing apples to oranges. “Iniesta is unique and absolutely indispensable,” he said. “I have always admired and appreciated him. It is ridiculous to think someone can take his place.”

Yet this is what Gomes has been tasked with. With the exception of Sergio Busquets and Ivan Rakitic, Gomes has played more minutes than any of the other midfielders on Barça’s books.

Iniesta – who has been bedevilled with injuries, including a knee ligament damage suffered against Valencia last October, and the vagaries of squad rotation – lies seventh on that list for playing time behind the likes of Arda Turan, Rafinha and Denis Suárez.

Winding down

Enrique has had the difficult task of keeping Iniesta on ice during this campaign, winding down his career – as he did successfully with Xavi Hernández two years ago – and hoping he peaks for the clutch matches in April.

Iniesta is not always enamoured with how his old team-mate – whom he played alongside in the first batch of 700+ appearances he has clocked up for the club since 2002 – is carrying out this delicate task.

Iniesta responded acidly, for example, when asked recently whether he will renew his contract during the summer, hinting at the frustration he feels at his diminished role. “I’m not going to be here just for the sake of it,” he said.

Enrique has held firm. He too – like Xavi and possibly Iniesta – finished his career at Barcelona. “I know that he wants to play more minutes,” he said. “I know, but I also want him to acknowledge what it means to grow older at a club like this.”

The punt on Gomes – who has been favoured over La Masia graduates like Denis Suárez and Rafinha this season – is illuminating. Gomes is one of six players the club splurged on during the off-season. They spent €123 million effectively on squad players. Of their number, only Samuel Umtiti has established himself as a regular starter on Barça’s first choice XI.

During Pep Guardiola’s four-year reign as Barça coach (2008-2012), he was adept at regenerating his squad from within. He gave several players – including Busquets, Pedro, Sergi Roberto, Thiago Alcântara and Marc Bartra – their starts in Barcelona’s first team, promoting them from Barça B.

Guardiola was an ideologue. He adhered to his philosophical principles, according to Real Madrid’s former manager and World Cup winner Jorge Valdano, “to the point of exaggeration”.

There is a significant lobby in Catalonia which is anxious that Barça re-finds their footballing identity, which is based around dominance of the ball, specifically in the middle of the park. Guardiola once said he would play with 11 midfielders if he could.

Ramon Besa – one of the most revered football writers in Barcelona and a journalist with El País who worked as a ghostwriter for Iniesta's recent biography – leads the clarion call. Barça have abandoned Guardiola's obsession with midfield dominance, Besa feels. It showed against Real Sociedad last weekend, who won 51 per cent possession in the tussle, something no visiting team has done at the Camp Nou in a long, long time.

Moments of magic

Under Enrique, the chips are loaded heavily on the team’s front three, the MSN of Messi, Suárez and Neymar Jr, producing moments of magic to decide matches rather than the pass-and-move way Barça used to suffocate teams under Guardiola.

Barça have looked inconsistent all season. The team is getting on. They crashed out of the Champions League to Juventus during the week, unable to re-enact the Harry Houdini escape act showcased against Paris Saint-Germain in the previous round. Gerard Pique, Javier Mascherano, Jeremy Mathieu, Iniesta, Luis Suárez and Turan are all the wrong side of 30. Messi will join them in June.

Were it not for Messi, in particular, this season would be a shambles. He has been sensational. His relentless standards are extraordinary. He has scored 29 goals in 28 league appearances. He has an even better goals-to-games ratio in the Champions League.

It is his arguably his playmaking which catches the eye, however. He is playing in a more withdrawn role than, say, during his years under Guardiola when he played as a false nine and hoovered up goals. Now he preys either out on the right wing or floating between midfield and attack.

In last weekend’s game against Real Sociedad, for example, he was the unmistakable difference between the teams, setting up one goal and scoring two, including a bullet from 25 yards.

The club frets over him. He has yet to sign a new contract. His current one expires in 2018. Last January, the club sacked its institutional director, Pere Gratacós, for failing to praise him roundly enough. He said ‘La Pulga’ (the flea) “would not be as good without Iniesta, Neymar and company, but Messi is the best”.

The club goes to Pythonesque lengths to prop up Messi’s moods. Last summer, when he was mired in court trouble, they launched a bizarre #WeAreAllLeoMessi social media campaign, exhorting their followers, including 20 million on Twitter, to post photos of themselves with their hands open in a gesture of solidarity with their football hero who had been sentenced in a tax fraud case.

Wondrous

Messi’s wondrous performances this season alongside Neymar Jr and Luis Suárez, who have been in fine form, too, merely highlight how badly the rest of the team has been playing. Barça’s defence has been porous, with the hapless Mathieu – who was replaced at half-time in the recent league defeat to Málaga – an easy scapegoat for the press. Jordi Alba has fallen out of favour, ceding his place in a three-man defence.

The absence of Dani Alves, who played as the team’s full-back for eight seasons and was part of Juve’s successful team midweek, is noticeable. Gone are his marauding runs, and the one-twos with Messi that used to carve open defences. Without him, it has been too easy to overrun Barça’s midfield.

The buck stops with Enrique, of course. In an effort to rouse his troops from their stupor, as the season entered its business end, he went for the nuclear option, announcing in a post-match conference in early March that he would be stepping down at the end of the season. None of his players were present in the room. Neither was the club’s president or its sporting director. There were no tears, no fanfare.

The players were fed up with his surly mood. Enrique hoped his decision would free them up. It worked initially – with the miracle comeback against PSG in the Champions League – but their league form has since dipped. A one-point lead has changed to a three-point deficit with a game more played.

Only a win at the Bernabéu on Sunday against Real Madrid in the clásico will rescue their chances of retaining the league title again this season. They must attempt the feat without the suspended Neymar Jr. It seems unlikely that Gomes or any of Enrique's other deputies are up to the task.

Moneyball . . . A Spanish role reversal

It used to be that Real Madrid were renowned for spending big, particularly once the galáctico era – a policy of jamming the team with the world’s most glittering, attacking talents like Luís Figo, current first team coach Zinedine Zidane and later Cristiano Ronaldo – swung into life when Florentino Pérez assumed the presidency in 2000.

Diario Sport, the Catalan sports newspaper, coined the term "cantera contra cartera" (youth academy versus wallet) to denote the difference in philosophy between big-spending Real Madrid and Barcelona, who placed an emphasis on nurturing homegrown talent. Barça's former president Joan Laporta used to gloat that Real Madrid liked to buy Ballon d'Or players, whereas Barça preferred to make them.

Roles have been reversed, however. Now there is a more balanced, workmanlike quality to Real Madrid’s squad, which draws heavily from its youth academy with the likes of Dani Carvajal, Casemiro, Nacho, Alvaro Morata, Kiko Casilla and Lucas Vázquez featuring prominently this season. The club only spent €31 million during last summer’s transfer window when it exercised an option to buy back Morata from Juventus. Barça have spent €343 million over the last three years on the transfer market.

It is Barcelona – and not moneybags Real Madrid – who pays its players more. Barça ranks second – behind Manchester United – in wage payments to players, according to sportingintelligence's Global Sports Salaries for 2016. On average, Barça's players earn £108,636 a week compared to £97,151 for Real Madrid's footballers. It seems that Barça – still revered globally for the prowess of its youth academy – has won a propaganda war.