Drenthe-on loan to Everton  from Real Madrid-is reportedly unhappy that while playing in La Liga two seasons ago Messi allegedly said  Hola Negro to him . Messi is reportedly somewhat perplexed, not to say pissed off that this should be turned into the tabloid’s  latest ‘Argie-bashing’ tirade (remember it was the Sun that famously headlined the sinking of the Belgrano with GOTCHA!).

And I can well understand Messi feeling the Sun story to be grossly unfair.Messi is not someone that by nature courts the attention of the media for anything other than his genius with the ball.

In truth,  Spanish football had had its fair share of racist controversies . In my book La Roja I recall that incident in October 2004 when the then Spanish national coach Aragones was overheard telling Reyes, in reference to his then Arsenal team-mate Thiery Henry: “ Tell that negro de mierda (that black shit) that you are better than him….”

Aragones unwittingly put Spanish football’s attitudes towards race under international scrutiny, exposing a culture at best of ambivalence, at worst of collective denial within Spain about the country’s  attitude towards the issue at a time when its politicians were struggling to formulate a national concensus around the issue of immigration.

But the Messi case does not fall into this category. Messi speaks like an Argentine and in his country and among his Barca team mates the term ‘Hola Negro’ is an Argentine not Spanish phrase- a term of endearment not abuse exchanged by citizens of every colour one finds in South America, unless you are blond and pink.

The Sun’s evidence of racism involving Messi is very thin indeed. Its story unjustly tarnishes the reputation of one of the great players of all time whose conduct on and off the field has proved exemplary- but for his occasional loss of temper, very rare diving,  and a short period pre-Guardiola when, as I have also related in my book,   he was reprimanded for partying too much with Ronaldinho and Deco- two of his best mates at the time.

Last night the Spanish embassy residence in Belgrave Square was packed as the friends and contacts that Casajuana has built up during his four year  posting came to bid a find farewell to a man who has endured one of the trickiest of postings with dignity, humour, intelligence and generosity of spirit, together with his  similarly charming wife Margarita.

Casajuana is being pulled back to Madrid earlier than would otherwise have been the case had the centre-right Partido Popular not won last December’s elections. Casajuana was judged too close to the outgoing socialist party for no other reason it seems than he has spent much of his adult life representing post-Franco Spain  loyally as a senior official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs whoever happened to be governing.
His successor, one-time defence minister with the previous PP government  Federico Trillo is a straightforward political appointment of a man who owed his rise through the party to the late Manuel Fraga Iribarne,  the Franco minister who went on to form  a new right-wing political party after the dictator’s death in 1975.

Despite such political baggage, those who know Trillo describe him as socially engaging and intelligent enough not to undo the good work done by Casajuana in building local ties, and he is expected  to settle well in London, not least become his love of Shakespeare and all his works.  

More worrying to the Foreign Office is another recent arrival to the court of St James, the new Argentine ambassador Alicia Castro. Close friend of Chavez from her time as ambassador in Caracas, this former trade unionist and air hostess, mirrors her president Cristina Fernandez Kirchner in her potential to opt for radical rhetoric and action in defence of  populist causes like the nationalisation of Spanish companies and Argentina’s  claim to the British owned Falklands.

a. Why did his employers MI6 take more than a week after William’s disappearance to alert either his family or the police?

b.Why did officers of the Met’s counter-terrorism branch SO15 delay informing investigating police officers of the existence of nine memory sticks and a black holdall found at Williams’s MI6 office until two days before the inquest into his death ended?

c. How much of Williams’ private life-the inquest revealed this included tying himself  to bedposts, visited bondage sites, and having £20,000 collection of ‘high-end’ women’s clothing and 26 pairs of designer women’s shoes  in his London flat- was known to his employers?

d. Exactly what kind of work did Williams do? We heard at the inquest that after being recruited by GCHQ, the government’s secret listening agency, and then seconded to MI6, his work involved the  design of “practical applications for emerging technologies”. He had also passed a course to become “full deployable” as an MI6 officer, was operational only in UK and not overseas, and had had contact with two undercover agents. All this tells us very little.

e. Was Williams personal life- of a kind that might have led him into unpredictable encounters-  properly  checked or overlooked before being recruited ? What are we to make of an MI6 officer, identified at the inquest only as F blaming William’s line manager, identified only as G, on a “breakdown of communication,”?

If we accept the coroner’s verdict that Williams was on the ‘balance of probabilities’ unlawfully killed by being placed in a holdall, padlocked, and suffocated, then the ‘cock-up’ theory looks pretty thin although cock-up along the way, there may have been .

If, as I suspect, there has been an attempt at a cover-up by MI6 and compliant police officers, then  one can only assume that Williams’ work was of a more sensitive nature than has been revealed so far and was the prime motivation behind his death.

To me, this case has uncomfortable echoes of the death of Jonathan Moyle, the Editor of the magazine Defence Helicopter Work who was found dead in his hotel  in Santiago, Chile, in March 1990, hanging in a wardrobe. An inquest into the death  of Moyle , who had been investigating sensitive arms deals at the time of his death, found that he was unlawfully killed.

Let me make clear that I am not suggesting that MI6 is culpable for William’s death. Perhaps there is suspicion although no evidence that a foreign agency was involved. I do believe however that the intelligence world’s ‘silo’ mentality-where secrecy breeds a culture of non-accountability-is evident in this case. The public interest deserves more answers than questions. The case cries out for an urgent and focused judicial enquiry whose terms of reference should include the conduct of MI6 and the police-for this may help unlock the key to the mystery.

It was good to see Barca scoring goals, with Messi breaking his own drought, as well as watching  substitute goalkeeper Pinto make some dramatic saves-but Pujol  showed himself a true captain when he urged  Alves and Thiago Alcantara to desist in their celebratory Brazilian dance .

Sure this was a match that Barca needed to win if only to lift some of its shattered  morale after losing the La Liga title to Real Madrid and failing to reach the final of the Champions League. But this was a victory over a weak team, which served to remind one just how easy FC Barcelona and Real Madrid have had it for much of the domestic  season. The sheer volume of goals moreover was evidently days too late to translate into anything more meaningful.

Only the  site of Tito Vilanova and Pep Guardiola sitting for most of the match discreetly in the dug out gave mixed messages about the future. Vilanova looked pale and tired compared to Guardiola, a reminder that the man appointed as the new manager of FC Barcelona is still recovering from a major operation, and that there is no scientific certainty about his longer-term future.

There is no doubting the strong bond that has existed for years between Vilanova and Guardiola. Both came from similar poor backgrounds with their Catalan identity and love for the kind of beautiful game Cruyff brought with him ingrained from an early age.They  shared a bunk room in La Masia. Vilanova was two years older than Guardiola, and became a kind of mentor.

Vilanova never really made it as player, however. He stayed in the  lower divisions while Guardiola was promoted by Cruyff to the ‘Dream team’,  and also played for Spain.  Nevertheless Guardiola never turned his back on his old friend.  When it came to managing the first team Pep called on Tito to be his assistant and has remained one of his most trusted friends ever since.  But a dressing room of an ambitious  team like Barca can  not be built simply on personal loyalty  and sentiment.  Cruyff and Guardiola always were characterised  by strong personalities and the respect earned through their playing years.

Much has been said of how Vilanova’s appointment will ensure continuity at Barca for he shares Guardiola’s faith in a football of style and grace. But I have my doubts whether Vilavonova  has it in him to be his own man, and to be more than just a holding operation as Barca struggles to hold together amid the changes to the team that will by necessity have to be made in the coming months, while Mourinho consolidates his power base at Real Madrid.

A new generation of Barca fans have got used to winning under Guardiola, losing the inferiority complex their  fathers grandfathers suffered for so many years. But after last week’s debacle, the club need a no less strong personality to ensure that the legacy is not squandered. I wish Vilanova the best of luck. But something tells me Barca’s long term future may involve Guardiola’s return whether  in  person or in the reflected football philosophy and personality of  a foreigner like Marcelo Bielsa. Barca will need more than just politics and friendships to resist Real Madrid’s return to dominance under the ruthless Mourinho.

Much has been said of Guardiola  as a person who , both as player and manager, had always chosen his next move on his own terms.  And yet circumstances I think combined with the ego to make of that game a particularly cathartic experience: the realisation that in that evolution in the history of FC Barcelona, of which Guardiola had been such an integral part, the time had come for a different manager to take Barca into the future. A great team like Barca looked tired and lacking a winning formula.

Guardiola over the four seasons he has been at the helm has given Barca his life and soul. Winning seventeen titles has involved blood, sweat, and tears, with Mourinho proving a particularly taxing opponent, showing little respect, stirring animosity, suspicion, envy, fuelling hate- not the football Guardiola wanted to be involved in  then, now, or in the next season, but one he found himself forced to face up to in defence of his club’s integrity.

The Guardiola  years have brought moments of extraordinary joy and satisfaction, but there has been suffering too- and that is football . And yet Barca under Guardiola may have got to such a level of excellence , immersed  as it was in collective adulation, as to lose sight of its hidden frailties. Such was its narcissism.

But none of this should take away from Guardiola’s huge contribution to Barca’s greatness, and the development of Spanish national football. At his best Guardiola  showed  a rare combination in football of grace,  style, and nobility touched with mysticism, like a beautiful, illuminated apostle of the game,  painted by El Greco. Without him Barca will struggle to regain  such heavenly heights despite Guardiola’s unwavering belief that those youngsters, like himself and Tito Vilanova , who emerge from La Masia have an indestructible Barca strain in their DNA.

In Sitges last night the sports bars were mostly empty. Those that were not,  resonated to ecstatic cries of celebration. For Barca fans,  seeing Ronaldo´s blunder in the penalty shoot out was a sweet moment. It helped overcome the dissapointments of recent days.

But in fairness to Real Madrid, they too played a great offensive game, full of spirit, which should give Barca further cause for thought about why they have found it so difficult to score goals of late.

Meanmwhile international football this week has given us an indication of what we might expect from this summer´s European Championships. The Germans are looking strong, but so is Spain if Vicente Del Bosque can work his alchemy on Barca and Real Madrid players whose collective morale has taken a knock this week.

My heart and soul tells  me that Chelsea did not deserve to win. That a team that played for much of the game just defending their own goal line against a much more skilled and talented team that simply was unlucky on the night will make the final a more boring occasion than would otherwise have been the case.

But in the cold light of today one has to accept that there was something heroic in Chelsea´s resistance, showing a kind of spirit that was lacking in some of Barca´s key players, not least Messi and Alves. And that the Chelsea goals when they came showed quality.

For Barca fans it was another night of frustration,after losing to Chelsea in the first leg and Real Madrid atthe weekend,  watching missed opportunities by a team whose overall star status was badly let down by its evident lack of effective fire power. And yet the chant in Catalan of Óla, Ole, to be a Barca fan is the best thing on the world´ that went rund the Camp Nou after the end of the final whistle, suggests that cules still believe in their team´s greateness, and quite rightly so.

Chelsea may be briefly dancing on the grave of beautiful football, but it will resurrect soon enough this summer when La Roja play in the European championships.

Football is of course  more that just about technique and style. Its also about stategy , tactics, and spirit, and all three simply were not there in sufficient quantities in the Barca team last night.

Today is Johan Cruyff´s 65th birthday. He made Barca great by combining all the elements necessary to produce a beautiful football that could win. Pep Guardiola has learnt a lot from his mentor and helped develop Barca into the great team we have seen in recent years. But there was no dream team last night, just a rather tired group of hugely talented players  unable to resolve the nightmare of losing to a lesser but more deserving opponent.

Barca lost because Guardiola got his starting line-up wrong and he is missing Villa.

Now, I rarely make football predictions as you know but today is one of those exceptions. Barca will beat Chelsea with a sufficient margin to go through to Munich. Guradiola has told us his players are going to win. Oh, yes, and Pique is back.

It was for sure wet, damp and cold sitting with a group of Barca fans just to the right behind the goal at the visitor’s end-the kind of conditions that remind one that watching even the best  team in the world live sometimes involves a large degree of masochism.

Just a yard and a line of stewards separated us from the nearest home supporters which meant the usual exchange of mutual provocation. The Chelsea fans chanted about Barca being cheats. We began  by chanting our tribute to Andrew Iniesta, and ended calling Didier Drogba the biggest cheat of them all.

By then cules had been  plunged into temporary stunned silence when Drogba mercilessly snatched  a goal in extra time thanks to a move laid on a plate by a rare Messi  mistake. Cause and effect summed up the game really.

From the opening whistle,  Barca appeared to play the way that had made them champions, possessing  the ball, and finessing it in a series of perfectly  executed passes . I use the word ‘appeared’ with intent. The holding operation seemed to be eternal. But it was evident pretty soon that the ball for much of the time was not going anywhere other than a series of backward and lateral  moves that increasingly seemed less inspirational than sterile. Chelsea tactics cried out for early substitutions by Guardiola which came too late. When the goal came it simply underlined the effectiveness of Chelsea’s defence, and simplicity of counterattack.

Sure, last might’s stats suggest a different narrative,  with Barca  dominating the control of the ball for most of the match and  with the most chances of  goal. But it was a team that  proved largely ineffective in front of goal, after counter-attacking laboriously. The  culprits  in Barca’s team  included Alex Sanchez and Cesc Fabregas, who squandered chances that would have otherwise sealed last night their club’s access to the Champion’s final.

So now  we have to wait till next Tuesday to see Guardiola’s boys prove their real worth, at a Camp Nou were English dreams have been as easily shattered as they have been realised.

I have to say I did not enjoy last night’s  game-and I don’t blame it on the weather. I was simply bored by Barca and frustrated by Drogba. The only consolation is that the game  acted as something of a  catharsis for Chelsea fans who since 2009 have thought only of grudge and revenge. By the end of last night’s game there was far less abuse that when FC Barcelona faced a Chelsea team moulded by Mourinho and I saw emblems being exchanged by rival fans at the end.

Something tells me that if Mourinho had been  in charge at Stamford Bridge last night, there would have been more hostility in the stadium and Barca would have been provoked into playing with more spirit. Bring on El Classico on Saturday. But right now I can’t wait to welcome Chelsea to the Camp Nou on Tuesday. Rest assured the result is going to be very different, with or without Drogba.

With the British media- including the Guardian’s own new story-focusing on Chelsea’s desire for revenge over the alleged injustice of that Iniesta goal at Stamford Bridge three years ago, the Alves interview provides some refreshing reminders of what football should be about.

As Alves points out,  that Iniesta goal, far from representing an enduring injustice, should be seen in the more generous context of FC Barcelona’s  transformation under Pep Guardiola into one of the great teams of all time. It marked the beginning of a period of unprecedented tournament success for the club during which Barca’s popuilarity around the world increased because of the way they played.

Alves  a player whose numerous assists have helped Messi scored many of his goals for the club, genuinely enjoys the game and believes that a good team has a duty to entertain as well as win. Grudges are held by bad players, and worse losers.