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In the absence of a war in Europe, another war in the Middle East, the Democratic convention in the US, hospital emergencies in the usual chaos and a startling fire in Madeira, a small section of the country this week – I know X (ex-Twitter) is not a significant sample – entertained themselves by debating “people who menstruate” and… the Berlin Ball.
In the shelter, we insisted on calling Portugal Portugal just because of the sense of belonging and the affection it generated, mice and keyboards were destroyed because someone was trying to make a living by exchanging sweets from Jewish families for some change. Refugees brought to Portugal during World War II.
Perhaps for lack of a more pressing occupation, polygraph The decision was made to verify the reality of the “viral” publications – a term that sends shudders down the spines of those who suffer from anxiety and those who do not – about the “robbery” of such balls, whose notoriety and enthusiasm are second only to those that began to happen in the main national stadiums in this lovely month of August.
It is touching to witness some conscientious ambassadors of the capitalist system trying to explain to supporters of poverty-stricken socialism that fixing the price of Berlinballs (or any other commodity) can only have one effect: scarcity and the subsequent disappearance of sand. A few years ago, a friendly salesperson at Meia Praia did not understand that everything had become an auction. “Look at the little balls from Berlin! / If you don’t buy them, they’re all mine.”
This is, in no euphemism, the lesson that the market economy teaches geeks and self-proclaimed spokesmen of the working class (conditions are usually consistent): the man with dry skin, whose feet and shoulders are crushed by the weight of his chest, who arrives at the point of sale with his breadwinner, and sets a seemingly reasonable price based on production and distribution costs and the time it takes to walk from hat to hat, towel to towel on the beach. If you don’t ship, adjust the price with two fingers in the next day/week/month, whether it’s €0.80, €2, €8, €20, €80 or €200, and you will get more customers.
As at the seaside, in the world of other balls, the market is cruel and infallible. If some focus on the value of the sweets “imported” from Berlin, others are exhausted by the bitterness of their experience at Porto. For weeks, some of Pinto da Costa’s widow, the opportunist Joao Rafael Coller, the winemaker Vitor Baia and others in trouble thought it was possible for the club to continue living in a utopia, because its financial situation was similar to that of its rivals. It is not.
Those who never asked for milk and honey when they flowed from the dragon wall suddenly and shamelessly demanded abundance when they were hungry. They wanted Faye, Danilo or Nejuan Perez as central defenders, Esquivel Fernandez as the core, Wesley or Asprilla as the wings, and Depay or Vitor Roque as the offensive front line.
They were also disgusted – in the face of a (somewhat baffling) number of failed signings and an unprecedented level of corruption in free transfers – that Evan Nelson was sold for more than… Taremi, Aboubakar, Marega, Tiquinho Suárez, Ze Luis, Wallis, Gonzalo Paciencia, Fernando Andrade and Adrian Lopez, all put together.
Perhaps for this reason, and because some shocked souls do not understand that it has come to this, Andre Villas-Boas must do what any responsible leader and manager would do. He bluntly stated that the club has a huge debt (513 million euros at the end of 2023) and the steps cannot be bigger than the legs. Especially since the equity should still be slightly higher than Red.
I agree that refusing to infantilize the membership (and constituents in other areas) will not be the most popular way to manage a crisis, but it is the only way to get out of it without holding your hands out, your head held high, and your conscience clear.
Villas-Boas may have dealt a blow to the pride of Porto fans, who (we) are used to “transferring” players from the second round as easily as taking candy from a child. Such is life, I thank you for your frankness, summer delusions tend to stop. We don’t have money to go to the Berlin ball, we might as well learn to eat the bread kneaded by the devil.
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