What goes around comes around. Ferran uses Barça’s own playbook

Barcelona are reportedly unhappy with Ferran Torres’ latest comments. According to Lluís Miguelsanz of Sport, the club were particularly annoyed that the forward publicly demanded greater appreciation before presenting his expectations directly to the sporting department. The contract dispute reached the media before it reached the offices.

The irony is difficult to ignore. Only a few weeks earlier, Barça were happy to watch Julián Álvarez use public statements to put pressure on Atlético Madrid. There is an important difference: the Argentine had already spoken to his club and clearly wanted a transfer, while Ferran is mainly strengthening his position before negotiations. The mechanism, however, looks very familiar — public pressure works perfectly when someone else has to deal with it.

Barcelona can argue that the two situations are not identical, and technically they would be right. The problem is that Ferran has used the same media stage Barça happily embraced during the Álvarez saga. What goes around comes around. The tactic suddenly looks far less attractive when Barcelona are on the receiving end.