Barcelona target trophy boost in Spanish Super Cup final against Athletic Bilbao

By now, Barcelona Football Club should be used to living in a state of limbo. Their inspiration, Lionel Messi has been weighing up whether to stay or go for the best part of a year. They have been without a president since October and on Friday the club’s 100,000-odd members were informed that the vote to elect a replacement had been postponed until, most likely, early March. Public health concerns motivated the delay of an election that had been due next to take place next weekend. The notion of tens of thousands of voters travelling to polling stations is deemed, during the coronavirus pandemic, unnecessarily risky. With no effective executive in charge until the elections, any activity in the January transfer window becomes far less viable. Barcelona need a centre-back, and manager Ronald Koeman would like a high-class striker. Talks with Manchester City for the transfer of the central defender Eric Garcia are now likely to be shelved until the player is out of contract in June while Koeman may have to settle with what he has in his effort to boost the Barcelona forward line. Whether he has Messi, who has been struggling with a calf problem, even for Sunday's match – let alone beyond the summer, when the captain Barcelona is available to move for free – is also a decision that has to wait. Messi has travelled with the squad for Barcelona’s meeting with Athletic Bilbao in the final of the Spanish Super Cup, in Seville. It is a showpiece that fits awkwardly into the mid-season calendar but has an attractive look for a club whose decline over the last 18 months is measured in their lack of silverware. For much of his career, Messi could afford to be snooty about relatively minor trophies. After all, he has 34 winner's medals across competitions from his 15 years as a senior Barcelona player. But he has not collected club prize since the Liga title of 2019, so this Super Cup, now part of an expanded four-club tournament, acquires an extra sheen. Barcelona certainly took the Super Cup seriously last January, when its fresh format – semi-finals and a final – was launched in Saudi Arabia, and Atletico Madrid knocked out Barca before losing to Real Madrid in the final. Barcelona sacked Ernesto Valverde as their manager when they returned. Their then sports director Eric Abidal publicly accused the players losing faith in Valverde and Messi reacted angrily to that suggestion . It was the beginning of a spiral of mistrust, anger and failure on the pitch. Barcelona remain brittle, but Koeman can feel reassured that his injury-hit, budget-constrained squad are in the best form of his tenure. ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ The Dutchman, who turned down the offer to be Valverde’s immediate replacement 12 months ago, but accepted the job last August, has overseen a run of nine games without defeat, including the victory, on penalties, against Real Sociedad that pushed Barcelona into Sunday's final. Messi missed that tense, end-to-end tie, and Koeman will take a late decision, in consultation with medical staff and the Barcelona captain himself on what part he is fit enough to play against Athletic. But the victory over Sociedad has boosted belief that Barca can eke out results without their skipper. “I was very proud of all the players,” said Koeman of the semi-final win. “Our overall game is improving and so are our concentration levels.” He praised goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, who added three saves in the shoot-out to his excellent display over the preceding 120 minutes, and midfielder Riqui Puig, who volunteered to take the pressured, last Barcelona penalty. “He put his hand up when I asked,” said Koeman, who has had a prickly relationship with 21-year-old Puig at times. Koeman generally backs the cohort of younger players in a squad whose resources are stretched by injuries to the likes of Gerard Pique, Sergo Roberto and Philippe Coutinho. Ansu Fati, the teenage star, is also out until March , but winger Pedri, 18, full-back Sergino Dest, 20, and defender Oscar Mingueza have grown in confidence over the last month. A first senior trophy in Barcelona colours for any of them, or for centre-back Ronald Araujo or winger Trincao, both 21, would feel like a coming-of-age, and arm a Barcelona where so much seems paralized for stiff challenges ahead. In a month’s time, they host Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, and, in the domestic table, they trail leaders Atletico Madrid by seven points, having played two fixtures more. Messi would advise his young colleagues that any prizes from what may well be his last season at Barcelona are not going to be easily grasped. ____________________________________________________________________

Barcelona target trophy boost in Spanish Super Cup final against Athletic Bilbao

A delay to the club's vote on the next president is the latest in a long line of problems for the Catalan club