It’s a good job Barcelona are famous, otherwise they’d look a total state in the Frenkie de Jong saga – The Warm-Up

FRIDAY’S BIG STORIES

More Than A Club

We’ve been thinking it through, and we’ve decided that if the Warm-Up ever found itself dealing with existential levels of debt, such that our entire long-term existence was called into question, we too would go about our business the way Barcelona are going about theirs. That is to say: strangely, wildly, and with the blithe presumption that the universe will find a way to bend itself to our preferences.

Order one of your players to take a transfer he doesn’t want, despite the fact you owe him €17m? Absolutely. Bring in a 31-year-old striker to replace the 33-year-old striker you bought last January? Why not. Add a couple more defenders and another winger on top of all that. Let’s have all these transfers in depending on transfers out and wage renegotiations, a chain of dominoes that might not actually exist, strung out across the continent. And let’s chuck a stadium renovation in there too, since we’re keeping things exciting.

The intricacies of Barcelona’s finances are beyond us. They may be beyond the labs at CERN. But the key, we’re pretty confident in saying, is that this is Barcelona. That, ultimately, is the security underpinning everything: it’s what’s luring the players in, it’s what’s persuading them to lower their wages; it’s what’s being deployed, cudgel-like, to get Frenkie de Jong out the door with a handshake and a pocketful of IOUs. It’s what’s persuading the lenders to lend and the owed to defer. This is Barcelona.

Common sense suggests that there’s only so long any team can keep swaggering through their business without somebody noticing that they’re not wearing any trousers. Maybe it will be De Jong, if he’s happy to sit there and not play and just keep pointing at the legally binding contract they’ve signed with him. Not paying your players, and not playing them either, is a pretty terrible look.

Indeed, it’s such a bad look that you have to imagine it would be extremely damaging to any ordinary club in any normal business. But while De Jong wants to get paid, as a point of principle, he also wants to stay. Because this is Barcelona, and there is still a magic to the name, to the place, to the football. However tawdry and chaotic the financials, and however shabbily they treat their staff.

It’s the power of the idea of the club that attracts players. And if they do try to force De Jong into a move – isolate him from the squad, leave him out of the tour, take away his squad number – then it will be that same powerful idea that ensures that somebody else will be happy to take his place. Nothing about Barcelona screams: this is a sensible place to go and play your football and build your life. But everything else screams louder. On they go, dancing above the void. Come and play for us! It’ll be fine! This is Barcelona!

Allez Les Bleus

Whatever the occasion, whether the women’s or the men’s game, there are few things in football as compelling as France at an international tournament. All the talent, set against the persistent, lingering threat of total self-inflicted implosion. Isn’t it lucky there’s no French word for “cliché”?

But this summer, the wheels are staying on. For the moment. Last night France secured their place in the second round with a comfortable 2-1 win over Belgium, although the eventual price may have been a high one. Marie-Antoinette Katoto went down early after no apparent contact, left the pitch limping, and then returned on crutches with a bagful of ice strapped to her knee. The curse of David Squires may have claimed its final victim.

And since France are rudely refusing to fall to pieces, we’ll have to talk about VAR. Having opinions is a game of opinions, of course, and VAR is just as divisive as anything else in football. But we’d like to propose a simple adjustment to the rules. If the only way a player could have avoided handling the ball, would be for their hand to momentarily blink out of existence, then it’s probably not worth a penalty. The laws of football are important and should be adhered to, but the laws of physics probably have to take precedence.

But if natural justice eludes us, at least Wendie Renard was there to step up – on Bastille Day, no less – and overthrow the unjust tyranny of football’s distant aristocracy. At least, we assume that’s what she was up to. Otherwise it’s one hell of a miss. Penalties get saved, fine, that happens. But the open goal that follows: oof. Liberté, égalité, catastrophe.

Looking a little further ahead, France’s win here has two important consequences for the wider draw. First, if you’re an England fan, it keeps France on the other side of the draw for the moment. No chance of meeting them until the final. But more immediately, it sets up a potential semi-final with Germany, which has the potential to be exceptional. Or exceptionally messy. Whatever France feel in the mood for.

IN OTHER NEWS

Rose Lavelle, stop that at once.

That flick helped the USWNT on to a 3-0 win over Costa Rica in the first CONCACAF W Championship semi-final. A few hours later, Canada overcame Jamaica by the same scoreline. We particularly enjoyed this goal, made by Adriana Leon and scored by Alyssa Chapman. Something deeply pleasing about the angles of the ball and the clonkiness of the header. Yes, “clonkiness” is a word. It is the quality of being very technically impressive but also looking like it makes a wooden sound. Clonk.

USA and Canada face off in the final on Monday. Winner gets a trophy, a place at the Olympics, and a place at the 2024 CONCACAF W Gold Cup. Loser gets Winnipeg.

RETRO CORNER

It’s four years since the last men’s World Cup final, though the fact that it was held in Moscow makes it feel like a game from a different world. It’s a footballing litmus test, this game. It tells you who you are and how you think about football. Does your mind go straight to Kylian Mbappé doing what only Pelé had done before, and scoring – brilliantly – in a World Cup final while a teenager? Or does it go immediately to Hugo Lloris, victorious captain, faffing about in his own six-yard box, football’s greatest meaningless error? (We’re Team Lloris, obviously.)

Some really good long-range shooting in this game. Nice to see Paul Pogba playing well, it’s been a while. And it’s a pity Ivan Perišić’s goal takes the tiniest of nicks on its way past Lloris. Otherwise it would have to be in the conversation for best World Cup final goals.

HAT TIP

“There are unique challenges,” says former coach Noureddine Ould Ali. “Imagine if Gareth Southgate had half his players in another city and they can’t come or there are checkpoints between Liverpool and Manchester and some players get turned back. This is the situation.… People in Palestine are not free in their movement. If you want to leave then you must first go through a number of checkpoints and if you get through those then you still have to go through the border into Jordan.”

COMING UP

Group A of Euro 2022 comes to a close this evening. England are guaranteed top spot but will look to keep their momentum going against Northern Ireland, while Norway and Austria go head-to-head for second place. There’s also some preseason friendlies throughout the day, if you’re really trying to avoid doing any work at all.

Have a good weekend everybody. See you back here Monday.