With a 'maybe' you can't convince the best player in history

The interview Leo Messi gave to SPORT from his home in Paris has left a large part of Barcelona fans cold, changed some of Xavi's plans and surprised Laporta and his board of directors. A good number of Culés expected the return of the Argentine and the club trusted that Messi would wait for Barça more time.

Over the last few weeks, the club has nurtured hopes of his return and this has provided unnecessary disappointment. Messi is Messi and no one should have speculated about his possible return if the risk of failure was high. It is true that if Leo had waited, maybe Barça would have balanced financial fair play concerns, maybe they would have convinced Tebas, maybe they would have sold Ansu Fati, Kessié or Ferran and maybe, then, they would have convinced him. 

However, someone should have thought that with a 'maybe' you can't convince the best footballer in history. So Leo has preferred to make his future concrete before having to improvise his career and his life as he did two summers ago. The proof is that he chose to move to Miami rather than give in to the aberrant offer he had to play in Arabia. He leaves sad, but without rancour and sympathetic to Barça's situation.

The decision has been taken, and so now, regrets aside, Barça will have to activate plan B. The socios can't immerse themselves now in the usual Culé pessimism and even less so after winning a league that has been celebrated as a Champions League. The problem is to know what Plan B is. It is true that the transfer market has not even opened yet, but the feeling of improvisation in the planning chapter is once again present. Of course, if anyone is capable of changing the script overnight, it is Laporta. We'll see how he comes out of it.

Albert Masnou, who was at Messi's house in Paris doing the interview, tells me that he saw a hurt Leo. That he has had a very bad time, that his first six months living in a hotel were terrible and that he is sad not to return to Barcelona and leave Europe. Of course, he is sure he will be back. Well, he knows that here, we will always wait for him with open arms. Good luck Leo.