Luis Enrique does his own thing
Monday's LaLiga Gala in Valencia had some notable absentees in Leo Messi, Luis Suárez and Antoine Griezmann, although there were mitigating circunstancies as to why the French player missed the event. According to reports the Atleti striker was set to board a flight for Valencia when he was informed of a personal family issue that forced him to remain in Madrid. Despite Griezmann's absence, his Atletico team-mates Jan Oblak and Godín received awards. In the case of awards handed out to Barcelona players, slightly embarrassed club ambassadors did the honour of collecting the prizes on behalf of the missing star attractions.
A year ago the LaLiga award ceremony was held in Barcelona. Luis Enrique won the award for 'Coach of the Year' but wasn't at hand to collect the prize. This time around in the time coinciding with the event he gave his first team players three days off. A perfect opportunity for Luis Suárez and Messi to sidestep the gala when their presence would have certainly been a major boost for the LaLiga ceremony instead of Robert and Rexach having to make half-hearted excuses as to why the strikers were not on hand to collect their awards in person. The LaLiga gala is an excellent opportunity in promoting the Spanish league to a global audience and when the major stars aren't present then the whole feel is of a half baked project.
Javier Tebas shouldn't take this in a personal way. Last night Barcelona played in the Catalan Super Cup against Espanyol and Luis Enrique went against the regulation ratified just last Thursday in the Catalan local parliament that stipulated that participating clubs had to field a team composed of mainly first team players as Catalan network TV3 were televising the game. Luis Enrique can sit back and wallow in Messi's goals and carry on in his self-important manner.
