It's time for the Barcelona board to stop the madness
The turmoil at Barcelona starts and ends at the board level. Piling pressure on a new manager who has not yet failed or succeeded makes absolutely no sense.
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Luis Enrique is far from perfect. Most recently, he flubbed his opportunity to re-take hold of the Spanish league by resting several top players, including Lionel Messi and Neymar, because they had only just returned from the winter holiday. Mistake that it was, that selection error does not warrant a pink slip.
Going into the weekend, Enrique had Barcelona only one point back of Real Madrid, although Madrid has played one fewer game. Still, Barcelona is a fingernail away from the top with more than half a season to play. In the Champions League, Enrique has the Blaugrana in the round of 16, and Barcelona managed to win its group. The team also looks certain to advance to the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey.
On the pitch, the team is not nearly in as much disarray as it is in the press and in the backrooms of the Camp Nou, where a weak board is failing to protect the manager from the star player.
Messi may be great, but Enrique is already Barcelona's third different manager since Pep Guardiola left the club in 2012. A fourth manager in three years would only cause further instability, and when Messi gets mad at him, would Barcelona move on to the fifth?
When choosing between Messi and Enrique, there is no choice. The star player always wins.
However, a club that is the caliber of Barcelona should not allow this situation to get that out of hand. Messi should not be sold, Enrique should not be sacked and Barcelona should continue forward with the plan that brought in a flurry of new signings while the transfer ban was on appeal: Luis Suarez, Ivan Rakitic, Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Thomas Vermaelen, Claudio Bravo, Jeremy Mathieu and Alen Halilovic.
If Messi wants to leave and another club is mad enough to pay the insane buyout clause, then, Barcelona will have the opportunity to spend like mad in 2016. Also, having the likes of Neymar and Suarez would help soften the blow until then.
Barcelona will survive without Messi – but it shouldn't have to.
Shahan Ahmed is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. He has previously written about the 2014 World Cup and 2013 Confederations Cup and regularly provides opinions on the English Premier League, UEFA Champions League, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A and Spanish La Liga. Follow Shahan on Twitter: @ShahanLA
