Two days ago, the dismissal of manager Xabi Alonso from Real Madrid was announced. One of the main reasons reported by the media was a loss of confidence among the squad and the coaching staff. His tenure wasn’t a disaster. If we look strictly at the numbers, we are talking about a win rate of over 70%. Second in the league, Top 8 in the current Champions League, and alive in the Copa del Rey. But anyone who watches football beyond Sofascore, like I do, knows that the feeling on the pitch regarding the Merengue team was negative. It is more or less the same story we saw during Carlo Ancelotti’s season. A disconnected team where it seems the attack and defense aren’t speaking to each other, you know? It lacks the glue that holds both sides of the field together.
I need to tell you about a football club that died and refused to stay dead.
Not metaphorically. Literally. On May 4th, 1949, a Fiat G.212 aircraft carrying the entire Torino FC squad crashed into the Basilica of Superga, just outside Turin. Thirty-one people died. The team that had won five consecutive Serie A titles, the backbone of the Italian national team, the greatest club side Europe had ever seen, was obliterated in an instant.
I need to say something that might sound counterintuitive. As a Barcelona supporter, I owe a debt of gratitude to Manchester United.
Not because of any friendly rivalry or mutual respect between European giants. No. I am grateful because the catastrophic decline of Manchester United serves as the perfect control group in the grand experiment of modern football. They are the living, breathing proof that money cannot buy greatness.
While Barcelona was drowning in a billion euros of debt, losing the greatest player in history, and selling off pieces of its own future just to keep the lights on, Manchester United was spending. And spending. And spending some more. The result? We are back competing for La Liga titles and scaring teams in the Champions League. They are fighting for fourth place in England and praying Europa League qualification counts as progress.
Have you seen the new Santiago Bernabeu?. It is a technological marvel. It has a retractable pitch that hides in a cave. It has a 360-degree screen that makes Las Vegas look subtle. It generates money with the efficiency of a Swiss bank.
It is also dead.
Marc Augé coined the term “Non-Place” to describe spaces of transience. Airports. Supermarkets. Hotel chains. Places where human relations are suspended and you are defined solely by your credit card limit.
