The season opens wider than the score

Barça could hardly have asked for a kinder opening night. Raphinha and Fermín López scored twice each, Karim Adeyemi marked his competitive debut with a goal, and Anthony Gordon came off the bench on his own debut to create two more. Elche were poor. Read too much into it and you will be wrong by October.

Everyone watching did the same arithmetic at the same moment.

Both new forwards did something useful on their first official night, which is rarer than it sounds. Adeyemi looked erratic early and flashed one wide of the far post before the break, then curled in the one that counted in first half stoppage time. Gordon arrived trailed by the internet's insistence that his hairstyles are Princess Diana's, came on for Yamal, and set up two in five minutes. On the second he was clean through, one on one with Dituro, and squared it for Fermín to tap in. Teammates notice that faster than they notice goals.

Then, just before the interval, the evening stopped being fun. Gavi went down in a collision while pressing, grabbed his right knee, pulled off his shin pads and left the pitch in tears. That is the knee he ruptured the cruciate in back in November 2023, and everyone watching did the same arithmetic at the same moment. Pedri replaced him.

Gavi's tests came back as a bruise and he should be training again within days, though the reports disagree about whether that gets him to Thursday. He then apologised to supporters for making them suffer, which tells you plenty about what the last three years have done to him.

Barça have spent the summer on Julián Álvarez and have very little to show for it. A bid reported at around a hundred million euros went unanswered, and Atlético have said all along that he is not for sale at any price.

A verbal agreement is worth whatever the other party decides it is worth.

Álvarez wants out, and that is exactly his problem. He believes he was promised something. Whatever it was, it was never written down, and a verbal agreement is worth whatever the other party decides it is worth. So he stays, in a shirt he no longer wants, whistled by the supporters he plays in front of, while the club holding the key has no reason to hand it to a title rival.

Lautaro Martínez was floated as the alternative, though Barça sources have since played down how real that route ever was, and Inter closed it off regardless. Beppe Marotta, the Inter president, said before their opening match that Lautaro is their captain, that he represents the history of the club, and that the circumstances that would prompt him to leave do not exist. He is contracted until 2029. There is nothing there to negotiate against.

The 5-0 at Elche does not remove the need for a long-term nine, but it does remove the panic. Raphinha can lead a line, Adeyemi runs in behind, and for the first time in a while the goals are arriving from more than one place. Whoever eventually signs has to improve that mix.

Rodri has signed through 2030, which gives Flick a midfield of Pedri to run a possession, Fermín to end it, Gavi alongside them, Frenkie whenever the knee allows, and now a holding midfielder who captained Spain to the World Cup and took the Golden Ball for it. Two or three clubs could field a middle three of that quality.

Two years after being abused over an award she did not win, she was at Camp Nou with her name on the shirt, watching Madrid lose it.

Madrid have looked short of a holding midfielder since Kroos retired and Modrić left, and they took Rodri's 2024 Ballon d'Or badly. The club boycotted the ceremony rather than watch Rodri collect the award ahead of Vinícius. Their supporters went looking for Rodri online, could not find him, and settled on Olivia Rodrigo, whose posts filled with abuse about a prize she had no part in.

Which is what makes this month's version funny. Rodri still has no personal account, so culers filled Rodrigo's comments again, this time to welcome him. The joke is also half true by now. In May her name went on the front of the Barça shirt for the Clásico, she stood pitchside beforehand and was photographed with Lamine Yamal, and then watched from her seat as Barça beat Madrid 2-0 to take the league. Two years after being abused over an award she did not win, she was at Camp Nou with her name on the shirt, watching Madrid lose it.

Rodri missed the opener still short of match rhythm after the World Cup and a minor back procedure, rejoined full training on Monday, and may debut on Thursday. There will be arguments about the fee and about how Flick fits him beside Pedri. There is not much of an argument about the business.

Frenkie kept playing through the World Cup on a knee that was already hurt, until the Netherlands went out to Morocco on penalties, and came back with a tear in the medial collateral ligament of his right knee. The club chose conservative treatment over surgery, and the estimate is something close to four months.

Nobody has to enjoy that judgment for it to be a legitimate one.

Rodri has since arrived in Frenkie's position, the captaincy has moved, and at the Gamper presentation Frenkie was whistled.

Barça may well decide the midfield has gone past him, or that a sale makes sense at the right price. Nobody has to enjoy that judgment for it to be a legitimate one. Deciding that a player and his doctors handled an injury badly, and that this proves he does not care about the club, is a different thing entirely. Seven years should buy him the benefit of that distinction.

In May, Barça Femení beat Lyon 4-0 in Oslo for a fourth European title, and have not missed a Champions League final since 2021. The league season behind it finished 29 wins from 30, 130 goals scored and nine conceded, a seventh straight title. There is no version of that team's remaining ambition that runs through winning Liga F again.

When you have won the league seven years running, the medal stops being the reward.

Then the players went. Alexia Putellas, the first woman to win the Ballon d'Or twice, left after fourteen years for London City Lionesses, who finished sixth in their first Women's Super League season. Mapi León followed her there. Ona Batlle went back to England with Arsenal. Barcelona sold none of them, and all three left as free agents when their contracts expired.

Not every exit is the same story. Salma Paralluelo left on a free when her wage demands were not met, which is a negotiation rather than a search for meaning. The pattern around her is harder to misread. When you have won the league seven years running, the medal stops being the reward, and a project that needs you starts to look more interesting than one that does not.

Not everyone went. Marta Torrejón renewed at 36 and is now among the captains, and Kerolin Nicoli arrived from Manchester City for a reported 1.2 million euros, rising to 1.5 with bonuses, the most any club has paid for a Brazilian woman. La Masia built this team once, and it also built a side that ran out of opponents. The season starts on 30 August against Tenerife at the Estadi Johan Cruyff, the 6,000 seat ground at the club's training complex where the Femení play.