Barça is struggling to establish leadership with Frenkie De Jong. His last two games on the bench don't help in a process where there’s no breathing room for the player or for the club. His signing, after an exceptional performance with Ajax, was celebrated as a solution for a Barça lacking midfielders and longing for the unforgettable Xavi and Iniesta.

After his signing came economic decline. A Barça that couldn’t balance the books and a subsequent pandemic coinciding with Messi’s departure and the construction of the new Camp Nou. Barça began to falter, and before long, the financial limit plummeted, and revenues collapsed just as Messi left Barça in silence, unable to say goodbye since his final matches were marked by the mandatory isolation of the pandemic.

De Jong has a salary from a bygone era a prohibitive one for a Barça without a defensive midfielder and with a surplus of interior players. Gavi, Pedri, Casadó Nico González and Ilaix Moriba left as well as Fermín López or the injured Marc Bernal. They want to sell him and renew him at the same time; his contract runs until 2026, and they suspect he wants to leave on a free transfer, but they’re offering him a renewal with the same salary because they know no one would pay that much for De Jong now. A dilemma. Shadows and light; in fact, no one speaks clearly about the De Jong matter.