Winning the league and losing Mateu Alemany
This league is now won. Although the mathematics insist on saying otherwise, Barça can now consider themselves champions. The title, after Tuesday's victory over Osasuna at the Spotify Camp Nou (with Jordi Alba as the unexpected protagonist), can no longer escape. Xavi's side are now 14 points clear of Madrid, who lost at Real Sociedad tonight, with just 15 to play for. Not even the worst of cataclysms would prevent the Blaugrana from winning a well-deserved title. This league has been forged over a slow fire, during eight long months of competition (with the World Cup in Qatar as a break) in which Barça have shown themselves to be better, much better, than all their rivals.
It has been an unquestionable domination, from start to finish, based on the great efficiency of a team that has won 26 of the 33 matches played so far and has been able to keep a clean sheet in 25 games. These numbers alone underline the superiority of a Barça side that has regained the hegemony of Spanish football after a three-year drought. The last league title won by Barca was in the 2018-19 season, with Bartomeu in the presidency, Valverde on the bench and Messi as the star. A lot has happened since then. The transformation of the club has been total. And, having overcome a triple sporting, economic and institutional crisis, it can be assured without a doubt that the change has been for the better.
FAREWELL TO THE 'MIRACLE MAN'
The bad news of the night for Barça was the announcement of Mateu Alemany's departure. The director of football has decided to leave the Blaugrana club, even though he has a year left on his contract, after receiving a million-dollar offer from a Premier League team, probably Aston Villa. The 'miracle man' of transfers, the great protagonist of the market of buying and selling players, is leaving the club after having done an extraordinary job but opening a huge question mark over the immediate future of Barça's sporting management. Nobody knows more than Mateu Alemany and Laporta loses a key player at a decisive moment in the construction of the new project. Barça assures that Alemany will continue to lead the process until the end of the summer, but it is difficult to imagine an executive of this level thinking about two clubs at the same time.
