In many ways, patience isn t a virtue we can truthfully say is embraced in modern football, whether that s with respect to managers or players.
When someone s level dips, people – or specifically social media trolls – are quick to brandish them frauds or finished like rabid animals sated by black-or-white so-called hot takes .
If there s one player on the planet who deserves that patience, it s surely Lionel Messi. But so accustomed has the world become to his usually incomparable excellence that any opportunity to humanise him with blinkered criticism was going to be gobbled up by those who are – bizarrely – so eager for him to fail.
While that s not to say Messi is above criticism, and there have certainly been times this season when questions were fair…