These days, Ernesto Valverde has consistently seemed like a slightly apologetic figure, downtrodden, put-upon. He is not particularly inspiring. His team keeps capitulating in embarrassing circumstances. Conceding twice in the final nine minutes to lose the Spanish Super Cup semifinal to Atletico Madrid in Saudi Arabia last week mattered not because of anything intrinsic about the game, but because it was an echo of far worse collapses against Roma and Liverpool. By the time Valverde was finally dismissed on Monday, it had come to seem inevitable. Winning La Liga is not enough, not anymore.
And so elite football must once again face the ludicrous futility its economic structures have created.