Lionel Messi's Barcelona Issues More Complex Than a Simple Manager Feud

The mischievous boxing promoter Mickey Duff once wryly observed that a rival promoter had achieved the seemingly impossible with one of his latest fighters.

“He’s done a Cecil B. DeMille in reverse," Duff noted. "He’s taken a star and made him an unknown.”

The late Mr. Duff could well have been speaking about the present fortunes of FC Barcelona and in particular the performance of the coach, Luis Enrique.

These are indeed crazy days at the club, but we shouldn’t be so surprised. When the annual individual awarding of the Ballon d’Or assumes the significance of the third-most-important must-win title of the season and a Portugal vs. Argentina game becomes an individual showdown of Ronaldo vs. Messi, and in times where the collective seems to be losing ground to the individual in the wider conscious, we should not be surprised that the chaos emanating from the Camp Nou dressing rooms is now being described simply as a case of a confrontation between a manager and one player.

Except of course that we all know that in life it isn’t usually like that. It isn’t normally just about two people locking horns, and it certainly isn’t on this occasion.

More often than not it’s a sense of malaise that seeps through to the very pores of all involved, a sense of unrest that culminates in either the bravest, strongest or perceived leader of the group sticking his head above the parapet and screaming, "No!! Enough is enough!"

Through this process many teams have flourished and gone on to become great. The flip side, however, is that it is also how many great teams die, but the reality is that without discussion, confrontation and frank exchanges of opinion, progress is never made.

What you have at Barcelona is not just about one player who lacks faith in his leader, but more about a whole group that has lost confidence in the man at the helm.

What is most concerning is not just the total absence of a battle plan but rather the reluctance to use the battle plan that was originally in place and subsequently abandoned.

The plan at Barcelona was always to use Lionel Messi as the main focus, the very fulcrum of the side. No more, it would seem. To continue with the military analogy, it is the equivalent of having a machine gun in your arsenal, then going to war armed with pea-shooters.

I don’t really care that the men in slick suits are treating Messi not as the star that he undoubtedly is but as a player at the twilight stage of his career. That much is simple. If Barcelona feel that they want to play a game that does not count on Messi’s brilliance, tell him—and then sell him. Don’t renew his contract. Sorted! But none of that has taken place face-to-face. Barcelona has considered selling Messi but never told him. Now the board is too weak to contemplate anything like that, and even though elections should take place in 2016, the pressure is on to have them earlier and finish the Sandro Rosell/Josep Maria Bartomeu era.

Much of the media look to explain the complicated melange of misunderstandings and communication failures in one simple phrase: Messi’s got the hump. So roll up, everybody, and tell us, what camp do you fall in, Messi’s or Enrique’s? What nonsense that is.

After a problematic start with Leo, former boss Pep Guardiola soon got the measure of the man. Luis Enrique must do the same. He has to open up the lines of communication between himself and his star man. Guardiola always used to say that just because all players had to be treated with the same respect, it didn’t mean they all had to be treated the same way.

And then there is the style issue that has been discussed here often. Luis Enrique has sent confusing messages and is not using the squad he has in the best manner. And players are not happy.

Back in England, the headlines are beginning. “City wait on Leo,” some are saying. Rumours of a deal amounting to £400 million and even the length of contract (five years) have been mooted but denied by the Messi entourage.

There are many interests off the pitch eager to exploit the situation, to fan the flames, as a way of getting rid of the present board.

First to go was director of football Andoni Zubizarreta, a more than convenient scapegoat for the problems being suffered by Barcelona at the moment. It suited everyone to blame him for the poor performances of some of the new signings, while he was also the perfect man to take the rap for the club’s misdemeanours when signing youngsters for their academy which earned the club a two-window transfer ban.

Zubizarreta may well have been the first to fall but he will certainly not be the last. To attempt to pin exclusive blame on him for the club’s present state is facile and on a par with the ignorance displayed by some that would try to convince me that the hurricanes raging through the Camp Nou dressing rooms are the result of the actions of just one player.

Manu Fernandez/Associated Press

The result of this is that while we should be marvelling at the magnificence of arguably the greatest player in the game, what we are witnessing in its place is the tawdry spectacle of a young man being used a political pawn.

On the pitch, what you have now is a collection of stars that has lost its sparkle. A side that walks on to the pitch confused, without a plan, not knowing what is expected of them.

When that happens they all, to a man, look to the bench in search of ideas, answers and eventually someone to blame. And the finger of blame is pointing more and more in the direction of Luis Enrique.

On Monday, radio station COPE suggested that Luis Enrique might just have two more games to get it right, the first against Elche in the Copa del Rey, followed by a home league match against Atletico Madrid on Sunday. So keep the eyes open.