Gerard Piqué, in the midst of confusion
The Spanish national team met up in Las Rozas and with little tact held an open-door training session. In normal conditions, these are appreciated as much as they are scarce. It was planned to have this open to the public as it was the first, but given the situation with Piqué, his declaration on the day of 1-O (the term used by many for the October 1 Catalonia referendum vote), it would have been prudent to do it behind closed doors. This can’t have occurred to anyone, I don’t want to think that whoever made the decision believed it was better for what happened to happen. What did come to pass was that Piqué had to listen to a significant amount of insults towards him. There was even a banner held up against him, which the Civil Guard, by the way, had removed.
Difficult days for Lopetegui and us all
Lopetegui, a gifted man, is facing a difficult spell. He is not now dealing with Piqué’s impertinence against Madrid, at the end of the day a relatively harmless topic. These new statements were not the same as, for example, the previous naughtiness of Mourinho in the opposite direction. Piqué's positioning before the events of 1-O, a day that has left so many scars, is in a different league. For the first time, Sergio Ramos said nothing upon joining the group. He arrived discreetly late for exactly that purpose. Lopetegui called a meeting urging everyone to come together, but found a strange atmosphere. We are living in difficult days.
Piqué changes his familiar tune
How difficult it is to decipher Piqué. Up until now he's been a frivolous exhibitionist, throwing out jibes in the direction of Madrid, playing to the crowd with clear opportunism. Headlines to unite the most mischievous of Barça devotees. But his plea on Sunday, moved to tears by this separation that we are living through, was a change from his usual tune. He was feeling pulled in both directions. Many others in Catalonia are living with this tension. It would be terrible if the current pressures made him leave the national team. Of course, he would have cooled much of the tension if he had curbed his tweets over the last few days.