Football Club Barcelona, Ah where do I begin. The world's richest football club in terms of revenue with an annual turnover of 850 million euros. All the trophies, all the glory, the success, the highs, and the very few lows it has experienced till now.

Domestically, Barcelona has won a record 74 trophies: 26 La Liga, 30 Copa del Rey, 13 Supercopa de España, 3 Copa Eva Duarte, and 2 Copa de la Liga trophies, as well as being the record holder for the latter four competitions. In international club football, the club has won 20 European and worldwide titles: 5 UEFA Champions League titles, a record 4 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, a joint-record 5 UEFA Super Cup, a record 3 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, and 3 FIFA Club World Cup. 


Such a great club, now find themselves in "THIS" position. If you've somehow not been following the news, which I suspect is not the case, you would have some idea of what happened to this once great football club and one that was rarely criticized for its failures because well, it didn't have many. But all that has changed and recently after an 8-2 utter trashing by Bayern that left them with their pants on fire, it has totally fallen apart to the point where Mr. Barcelona, arguably the best ever to touch a football, Lionel Messi wanting to leave no matter what. I'll start off by covering their major blunders in the transfer market which has left them in this position and left their fans with a sense of dread. 

THE SALE OF NEYMAR



This isn't to say Barca didn't have midfield problems even in the MSN(Messi, Suarez, Neymar) era but they carried the team no matter what. It was goals galore and when everything seemed smooth, the entire Neymar transfer saga happened. After so much back and forth and Neymar saying he wanted to be the leader and lead his own team into glory, he was sold for a staggering 222 million euros. That amount, that transfer broke the entire transfer market and its effects are still being felt. Many felt it had ruined the transfer market for years to come and no one player should be worth that much. 

The problem ideally wasn't the huge transfer fee for Barca that they got because well, they got fucking paid heavy. The problem was the reinvestment of the fees. Every club knew they had hella cash to spend now so they just bumped up prices for all the targets Barca came for. That was indeed bound to happen in such a transfer but the reinvestment was utterly atrocious, to say the least. 

Let us have a glimpse at what happened to all the signings they made after that and how it led to so many problems financially as well as with the stability of the team.


Philippe Coutinho




One of the biggest priced "flops" in the recent history of football. He was tearing it up at the Premier League, one of the best CAM's at that time, carrying Liverpool in games where victory seemed impossible with that bit of Brazilian flair and magic. Then he was signed for 150 million euros by Barcelona to replace their now gone superstar Neymar. But that magic and flair, it never even got a spark or showed signs of ignition at Camp Nou.  Barcelona couldn't find any buyers for now, at least not at their asking price because no one would ever dream of paying that much for him now ever when they decided he wasn't fitting in or being a regular starter under the manager at that time Valverde.

 Now the story gets interesting, well he was a flop at Barcelona who then went on to loan at Bayern Munich and then came on as a sub during the 8-2 trashing given by Bayern and added insult to injury by scoring and assisting against his parent club, going on to win the champions league with Bayern, which now means Barcelona have to pay an extra 5 million euros to Liverpool as that was a clause added in his transfer deed. 

This entire sage shows how pathetic the entire situation is for Barcelona and with one of their biggest stars. 


Ousmane Dembele




The wonderkid who signed from Borussia Dortmund, the man who was hailed as the successor to the King, well all he succeeded at was missing 75 games in his stint at Barca till now. You read that right, SEVENTY-FIVE games injured starting from his first La Liga away game against Getafe.  

For a guy who was signed for again close to 140 million euros, making him the second-highest transfer at that point, this return has been utterly shocking. He has played only 74 games for Barca after signing during the season of 17-18, scoring a measly 18 goals and 17 assists in that time. He has missed more games than he has played for Barcelona at this point in time and that is such a worrying stat for the future to anyone who wonders if he can guarantee his spot at the team. 


Malcolm



Bordeaux’s Malcolm had initially agreed to join Roma, with fans waiting at the airport in Rome to greet their new Brazilian signing. But of course, Barcelona swooped in at the end to hijack the deal and steal Malcolm away from under the Italian’s noses. 
 
Roma was outraged, with sporting director Monchi even considering legal action against the Catalans.
 
But here comes the main point of this saga. Apparently then Barca manager Valverde did not know who he was, much less want him in his team. 
 
This was reflected by him playing just fifteen times for Barca before being sold again to Zenit. Again this transfer shows a clear lack of planning when it comes to buying targets.


Antoine Griezmann 


             

Griezmann obviously still has time to prove himself, having only spent one relatively lackluster season at Barcelona to date, but for €120million, fans expected so much more. The former Real Sociedad and Atletico Madrid star was last summer’s prize signing, alongside Frenkie de Jong, but living up to that billing has proved pretty problematic.

For starters, Griezmann doesn’t really fit into Barcelona’s free-flowing system. The Frenchman has made a name for himself playing just off his side’s main striker — most recently Alvaro Morata or Diego Costa at Atletico — but in Barcelona 4-3-3 formation, his talents tend to be wasted as he’s marooned out wide.

 I do not know why this signing was made in the first place because honestly, he loves to play from the right-wing and cut in, which a special someone called Messi is already half-decent at doing. No manager would ask him not to do it and that forces Griezmann out wide to the left. 

Again both Valverde and recent manager Setin left him out of the squad numerous times stating the fact that it was not possible to fit him in without breaking the team's system. 

And last but not least, the latest clownery of Barcelona in the transfer market which I feel is pretty damning for them as a club, the singing of 


Martin Braithwaite 




Not the worst, but perhaps the most damning signing of Bartomeu’s reign. After winger Ousmane Dembele sustained a long-term injury, the club was granted an exemption by La Liga to sign an attacker outside of the regular transfer window. That led them to the controversial capture of Braithwaite.

His reluctant sellers, Leganes, were left seething as Bartomeu activated the player’s release clause, meaning they were left powerless to prevent the move from happening, and further, were denied the opportunity to sign a replacement. Eleven games, one goal for Barcelona is his record now and that shows what a bad decision it was, just ended up ruining Leganes's chances of staying up as well. 


The state as it is now 

All the above-mentioned transfers, all the managerial sackings, appointment of new managers, lack of communication between board and fans all of it point to the fault of one person who now has lost the trust of every Barca fan around and seemingly also their best player Messi: Josep Maria Bartomeu


The man behind all this is finally under pressure and looks certain to lose his seat. Recently he even managed to postpone elections to give himself time to recover

"The board understands that an immediate call for elections is not feasible, given that the league season will begin on the weekend of September 12, 2020, and the situation arising from the COVID-19 crisis - both economically and socially. This was what was announced after lots of pressure from fans.

The announcement of Messi wanting to leave no matter what seems to have cast the nail in his coffin unless there is a late twist. 

The sacking of Eric Abidal, another Barcelona ex-player who worked with the board in the capacity as a sporting director was just used to buy some time which again, he was let go after being made to tell Sentin that he was being sacked. 


The "Re-structure" 


After the sacking of Setin as the manager, the aftermath of the 8-2 humiliation, The board announced there would be a huge restructure within the squad as well as the board. 

It has been several weeks now and the only news that broke was the news of Messi leaving which I think is safe to guess was not their plan. 

Rakitic has already left to Sevilla, Suarez is being told that he will have to leave as well with new manager Ronald Koeman not having the striker in his plans. 

The entire average age of Barca's squad is close to being around the thirties, the entire squad needs a huge overhaul with a mix of experience and fresh blood. 

If Messi leaves, which again is a whole other saga which I will cover in another post about the situation as it stands now, but if he does leave it makes the entire job three times harder than it is now and that would just add to the mounting pressure.

Ronald Koeman is being asked a huge task and only time will tell if he can survive long enough to do it and if Bartomeu will be the president that will back his newest appointment and if he himself will be there long enough to get some redemption.




Leave your thoughts in the comments and what do you think or who do you think is to blame for the failures of Barcelona and whether Bartomeu should be given more time to redeem himself.