Laporta, moved by Romeu’s goodbye / Dani Barbeito
In Joan Laporta’s first stage as president of FC Barcelona, 13 managers resigned in two different batches. In a first, in 2005, Sandro Rosell, Josep María Bartomeu, Jordi Moix and Jordi Monés. A few months later Javier Faus did it. Three years later, 8 of the remaining directors on the board of directors resigned. Laporta was then left with only ten. So he had to appoint 4 to comply with the club’s statutes. The season after they won the sextete. I say this because if something doesn’t scare Laporta, it’s resignations. What’s more, I think that last night he celebrated Romeu’s departure. Neither Jaume Giró, who resigned before entering, nor Jordi Llauradó, who did so a few months later, nor now Romeu, are one of his own. None were from the hard core of him. So this latest resignation worries him little or nothing.
Another thing is that yesterday they will perform a sketch in which, a priori, all parties were happy after the departure of the economic vice president. Romeu leaves through the front door while the president receives praise from the outgoing manager. A priori, the gag meets its intended objective, but it leaves many unknowns.
Romeu, for example, missed saying that Laporta was staying with his ‘praetorian guard’. He was referring to that hard core with whoever governs the club. Deep down, without wanting to say it, Romeu acknowledged that now at Barça only Laporta rules and those who obey him. Since Ferran Reverter left office, Laporta assumed, in addition to the presidency, the general management and now the economic vice-presidency. In other words, the more directors and executives flee, the more positions, meetings and trips for Laporta. Of course, according to the president himself, the club is doing very well. Either he explains it to us better or it is difficult to understand.