The rift that could derail Barcelona’s season

After a poor start to their 2019/20 campaign, it was inevitable that fingers would be pointed at Barcelona’s players.

Although they’re only two points behind leaders Real Madrid after seven games, the manner of their victories hasn’t enthused the fan base, and the inability to keep a clean sheet – just one in La Liga so far – has been a cause for concern too.

However, a potential board leak has seen some of the players send coded warnings, and that doesn’t bode well for anyone connected with the club.Mundo Deportivo journalist, Xavi Bosch, wrote a recent article in which he suggested that the Barcelona dressing room wields far too much power.

Amongst the accusations made were that they attempted to discredit Ousmane Dembele in the hope that he would move on and therefore allow Neymar to rejoin the club.

It was also suggested that they were behind the banning of journalists travelling with the team on away trips, that players dictated when they should have their operations and also that they were behind Pep Segura’s sacking.

There are a plethora of other things to add to those but the gist of the article was clear. It certainly provoked a reaction too.

After the win over Getafe, Gerard Pique, never a player who is backwards in coming forwards anyway, gave his own take on things.

He hinted that the board had put pressure on a paper that is sympathetic to goings on at the club to publish such nonsense, and that hasn’t been well received. It’s fair to say that the central defender, not for the first time, has thrown a grenade.

“We don’t want to get angry,” Pique said. “When two [parties] don’t want to get angry, there’s no argument.

“We know the club, we know who the newspapers are [that have a link to the club] and who writes each article, even if their name does not appear.

“We don’t want to get angry; our intention is to perform on the pitch and to win trophies.

“I hope that no one wants to incite battles [about things] that have never existed.”

The war of words has the potential to ignite a civil war at the club, and after all of the transfer shenanigans across the summer, another fire storm is something that everyone can do without.

Moreover, with the club in the middle of a clutch of clubs near the top of the table, full focus has to be on the pitch and not elsewhere. If not, a poor start could turn into a poor season.