Lionel Messi sent his compatriot Pope Francis a signed Barcelona shirt back in March to welcome the Pontiff’s election at the Vatican marked with the words: "with much affection."
When Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino, the querulous Argentine martinet fresh from snagging the Clausura championship in his home country with Newell’s Old Boys, touches down in Barcelona on Wednesday to finalise a three-year contract, Messi should perhaps forward on another shirt to his new coach expressing the sentiment: "I'll try to avoid injury."
Much has been made about Martino's “philosophy" and how he will look to progress or tinker with the Barcelona style. There is probably too much hyperbole surrounding the tiki-taka approach ingrained in Barcelona’s general outlook.
Some commentators view it is a positive system laced with potential and worked by technically superior players.
Others deride it is a negative because it is based more on not losing the ball to deprive the opponents of opportunity rather than focused on creation.
Barcelona revel in such a traditional approach true to their values, but the methods tend to be rendered worryingly limp when Messi is not illuminating the side.
Without a fit Messi, Barcelona toil against lucid opponents. The Bayern Munich coach Jupp Heynckes was quick to address such a point when his team completed an astonishing 7-0 aggregate win over in the Champions League last four back in May.
The tournament winners mauled Barca 4-0 at home before embarking upon a 3-0 win at the Camp Nou a week later, a match Messi watched from the technical area due to his troublesome hamstring strain.
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