Joan Laporta has been riding by the seat of his pants at Barcelona over the past couple of seasons, but the chickens could be coming home to roost after they lost heavily to Monaco in their final pre-season match before the 2024/25 season kicks off.
The Gamper Trophy is the traditional curtain raiser to the new campaign and opponents appear to be selected on the basis of how popular they’re likely to prove for the masses, thereby hopefully selling out the stadium, as well as providing a reasonable, if not too difficult test for the Blaugranes.
On Monday night, however, the Catalan giants were comprehensively beaten by Ligue Un outfit, AS Monaco.
Joan Laporta won’t have long to convince the Barcelona faithful
With the scores locked at 0-0 at half-time, it’s safe to say that no one was expecting the French side to walk away with a convincing 3-0 victory, and as Relevo note, it elicited a chorus of boos from the stands with particular ire being directed at president Laporta.
Dani Olmo has been signed this summer but that’s about the sum total of the club’s incoming business so far.
Nico Williams has been promised but not yet delivered, and Hansi Flick has been getting by utilising some of Barca B’s young stars.
It was a similar story for Xavi though to his credit, it took him a couple of seasons before he made a pig’s ear of things.
Flick is unlikely to be given anywhere near that long to get things right and that’s on Laporta.
The president’s charisma will only get him so far after years of underperforming, and with four of Barca’s opening five games seemingly being quite challenging, things aren’t going to get any easier for Flick or Laporta.
Signing Williams at the 11th hour might paper over the cracks, but unless the squad hit the ground running and, eventually, lift a trophy at season’s end, this could be it as far as Laporta’s long-term aspirations go.