Goiânia’s 2 biggest teams are Goiás and Vila Nova. Every single time they face each other, even in friendlies, there are violent fights between their ultras. People die, are stabbed, hit with rocks and sticks. You must be thinking this is the reason I haven’t been in the stadium that sits 3km from my house in 10 years. Not quite, but close.

9 years ago, I was at a party with a group of friends. One them was a Goiás ultra. Out of nothing, an acquaintance that happened to be a Vila Nova ultra arrived. Him and my friend, besides hating each other’s teams, were fighting for the same girl. The Vila Nova ultra drew his pistol. Aimed at the Goiás ultra.

Goiás Ultra: “Are you crazy?! Shoot then!”. And took 2 steps forward.

Shot to the neck.

This happened at a party full of 18 year olds. Lots of heavy drinking. Another friend nearby started screaming “HEADSHOT! HEADSHOT!” while the Vila Nova ultra ran away. Everybody ran away.

This all happened on a Saturday night. Me, being a sensitive and caring 18 year old, went to the one place I felt safe back then: a pub. Sitting there, talking to some friends, I said: “Let’s drink for the dude that died yesterday”. A few minutes later the Goiás Ultra, with a ridiculous large bandage on his neck entered the pub.

Came straight in my direction:

“Hey, Lucas, crazy night yesterday, huh? Did you see my baseball cap? I lost it during the chaos!”.

3cm to the left or 3cm to the right and he would’ve died. He could have been in shock, he could have chosen to stay at home for weeks, afraid of everything around him, he could have called his ultra friends and go after the Goiás Ultra. Those would have been the easiest choices for him.

He did none of that. He decided to go to a pub and ask people about his baseball cap. He decided to ignore the fear he certainly was feeling, and focus on going back to his normal life and be positive about finding something he had lost. He took the hardest option. All he needed a few hours after being shot in the neck was going to the pub, talking to his friends. And finding his precious baseball cap.

No, this isn’t gonna be a piece about violence in Brazil or in brazilian football. It would be too easy to open with an absurd story like that. How many people on Earth can open a piece on violence and football like that? Not many. I don’t like easy, pleasant, or common place.

This is a piece about the summer transfer window and how most culés are behaving. Most should learn from my friend that got shot in the neck and only wanted his baseball cap back.

What’s the point on focusing on our fears about Zubi ineptness, or our board’s complete lack of footballing knowledge? Saying “Zubi will fuck this up, he won’t sign good players, 5 years without a CB, PSG and City will buy all of targets with their billions, it’s all pointless” serves no purpose. At all.

When you act like that, and say those things, you are playing it safe. You are taking the easy route. After all, failure is much more common than success, especially for Zubi and our board. You are betting, and counting (and some even hoping…) for the most likely outcome: failure. When you say they will fail, you’re making sure that you, as the loving culé you are, can get to say “I told you so!” if our summer signings do not strengthen our squad enough. Just making sure you do not “believe their lies” or “be optimistic over nothing” so you can say you were right all along is a very empty way to look at life, let alone football.

Do Zubi and our board full of suits with no football knowledge deserve a vote of confidence? No, I would never say that. I can assure you, however, Bartomeu’s and Zubi’s jobs will be in serious peril if they fail to sign the players we need, and the 2014-15 season ends without a major trophy (again). They cannot fuck this up. As inept as they are, they are surely trying their best.

Luis Enrique has been FC Barcelona’s coach for exactly 11 days. He was announced on May 19th. In 11 days, we have 5 new players on our squad: Rafinha, Deulofeu, Masip, ter Stegen and, imminently, Claudio Bravo. That’s 5 decisions taken in 11 days. 5 squad spots filled in 11 days. Luis Enrique and Zubi are working hard. Things are moving, agents are travelling to Barcelona, deals are being offered. And the summer window didn’t even open yet!

I get it. Taking the Easy Road is tempting. You don’t get your hopes up, you get to curse at people that have hurt our club in the last few years. I don’t blame you.

I myself am not a huge optimist. I don’t dream of huge, world class signings like Suarez and David Silva. That would be the Dumb Road.

I do, however, tread on the Hard Road. I believe Zubi, and especially Luis Enrique, are working hard to bring the players we need and deserve. They wanna bring FC Barcelona back to the place it should never have left in the first place. Competing for all titles while actually playing an attractive style of football, and all players giving their best for this shirt, this club.

Taking the hard road and not being a pessimist about our transfer window is like going looking for your baseball cap after being shot in the neck. Rationality says it’s dumb to do so, even ridiculous. But it makes more sense than staying at home cursing at the heavens for something you cannot change.