As good as it gets?

Barcelona are at the top of their game, but Miguel Delaney finds out why demands on Pep Guardiola will ultimately lead to their downfall

IT’S difficult to appreciate now just how depressing the atmosphere around Barcelona was in the summer of 2008.The side had just finished 18 points behind Real Madrid and ended the season in third without a trophy.

Far from a fearsome team, they were a flabby one. Focal point Ronaldinho endured a miserable last season and there were concerns about whether he would ever recover his fitness. There were similar doubts, however, over whether his successor, Leo Messi, would ever even rise to that level of fitness in the first place, having been injured in each of his previous three seasons.