The season has been so strange that this Tuesday marks a year of Messi's speech at the 2019 Gamper and the course is not over yet. It was the second consecutive hot speech, with the Argentine speaking as the club's absolute factotum. From the “cute and desired cup” of 2018 after the defeat of Rome, he went on to a speech of convictions. “I don't regret anything,” he said as he grabbed the microphone. making it clear that they had left it all the previous year, when they had so close had the third triplet in the history of the club before the historic black night in Liverpool. “The truth is that it is difficult to say something today after last year, but I do not regret anything and I say the same again. I trust this squad, these players and this coaching staff. We are with the illusions renewed and with desire; this club fights for everything. “
Messi's speech at the Gamper has not been fulfilled. The coaching staff in which he did believe was fired by a directive that fantasized with an “impulse” with Setién and Barça, after eight Leagues in eleven years and five consecutive Cup finals (four titles and one final), has not accomplished the objectives in League (second and without options before the last day) or in Cup (in quarters).
But Barça is still holding onto Messi's speech, which is the one that marks the club's pace and that has structured the Barça season. And Messi warned on February 20, already before the confinement and without Valverde on the bench, that something was wrong: “If we want to qualify for the Champions League, we have to keep growing and a lot, because I think that today it is not enough for us as we are here to fight for the Champions League “. On May 15, and after Setien said that he did not share the Argentine's opinion, Messi corrected him: “Setién misunderstood him or explained it to him badly; we cannot win the Champions League as before the break. Everyone has their opinion and they are all very respectable. Mine is based on the fact that I was lucky to play the Champions League every year “.
And time ended proving him right. On July 16, as soon as he lost to Osasuna, he exploded: “I said a long time ago that if we continued like this, he would not give us to win the Champions League. We have to change, because if not, the game against Naples will also be lost”. That day was a distraught Messi. “People are running out of patience and it's normal, because we don't give them anything,” he lamented deeply affected.
However, Messi left a message of hope after the 0-5 of the last day in Vitoria on July 19. As if it were his particular Gamper. “The main thing is that we did self-criticism. We realized a lot of things. Today is a step forward at the level of attitude and commitment, which is what you always have to have. You have to leave at least with the attitude of any rival; if not more”. And he concluded: “There is nothing more to talk about but to demonstrate the change.” Starting Saturday at Napoli.