Barcelona Are Beyond Plaudits, But Has Brilliant Become Boring for Blaugrana?

Has there ever been a football team with a higher approval rating than Pep Guardiola's bewilderingly brilliant Barcelona, who all too predictably defeated AC Milan to reach the Champions League semifinals on Tuesday night?

Outside of loyalist Madrid circles, it seems Barca are now almost universally revered. They have long since transcended the muddy trenches of fan loyalty and been elevated to a godly status that becomes only the fewest of the few.

Guardiola's vision is now, undeniably, a defining masterpiece to hang in the grand gallery of the game.

As such, we laud Barca's every appearance before us. And so we should, because it truly is a privilege to watch the greatest club side assembled come together twice a week to dispatch their latest victim.

We gush over the passes of Xavi and Iniesta. We gasp at the footwork of Lionel Messi as he glides past milestone after milestone with a ball glued to his instep—like a ball-playing hummingbird. We marvel in the statistical slaughter inflicted on their inferiors.

Sometimes, we can only sigh in resignation at the sheer majesty of it all.

As a sporting gift to our generation, this Barcelona team is as generous as perhaps any given to any generation before us. Muhammad Ali, Jack Nicklaus, Babe Ruth, Pele—you name them, Barca and Messi are up there alongside them.

All of which makes what's coming next sound quite horribly spoiled.

Recently I've found myself yearning for something different. Recently, I've found myself becoming immune to the most intoxicating dose of football heaven known to man. Recently, I've started to find Barcelona...boring.

And what's more—I'm not alone.

It seems some of you may feel the same way. Perhaps many of you feel the same, but you're just too scared to say it aloud?

Even to think it feels wrong. As a football writer, I've lauded Barca and Messi on countless occasions and twice watched on as they taught my team—Manchester United—the most fulsome of footballing lessons in Champions League finals.

After United, Barca are probably the team I've watched most over the last five years. But maybe that's part of the problem.

Could it be that maybe I've hit my Barca saturation point?

Part of the issue is having to watch so many heavily one-sided matches. Barca's average possession number this season is 69 percent, which has limited opponents to an average of just 6.9 shots a game against them.

That's not a football match. It's a training-ground exercise.

Of course, it's not Barca's fault they're so ridiculously good at keeping the ball and dominating the other team, but after a while I find myself willing them to give it up for a while.

I've also grown tired of tiki-taka. The purists will kill me for it, but watching a million short passes over 90 minutes is beginning to leave me cold. Barca's patient penetration is masterful, but occasionally I yearn for something more direct.

After a thousand listens to a symphony, maybe I'm ready for three-man punk act?

Most of all, I yearn for something different.

Barcelona are remarkable. They are an ode to technical perfection, sprinkled liberally with genius and possessed one of the greatest players we've seen, but sometimes you can get too much of a good thing.

And that's why I'm hoping Bayern Munich or Real Madrid will take it to them in the final—Chelsea permitting—and give Barcelona the kind of footballing lesson they've been handing out to everybody else for the last few seasons.

Football should be a battlefield, not just a procession of plaudits. And perhaps it's in the game's best interest that Guardiola's men are cut down this season.

I love you Barca, but it's time you and your footballing philosophy were beaten. It's time for a revolution.