Barca on the Brink: A Giant in Ruin
Talk about bad business. I mean Jesus Christ! Do European football franchises rebuild? Or is that an American thing? Is Messi actually a captive? Is the Barcelona ownership and board a bunch of toddlers with zero clue on the workings of the real world? So many damn questions but one thing we all can agree on is that one of the most famous clubs on the face of the Earth could be at a point of no return. There’s a hell of a lot to talk about so let’s get right into it.
First of all, my apologies for not putting up any posts for a good six months. I’m going to try and get more articles up and if you’re saying “yeah right” and rolling your eyes I can’t really blame you. That being said, Barcelona sucks and the club looks a mere shadow of its once-dominant self.
Down Really Really Bad
I’m actually convinced that Barca’s owners and/or board are actually run by infants. I mean what the hell have they been doing? According to Dermot Corrigan of the Athletic, Barcelona is 1.2 BILLION Euros in the hole right now. Corrigan also says that the club still has to pay over a hundred million euros for past transfers such as a whopping 69 million euros to Liverpool for the transfer of Philipe Coutinho, and 19 million euros to Bordeaux for the transfer of Malcolm who isn’t even a Barcelona player anymore. The real bombshell that Corrigan reveals is that Barcelona has to pay 730 million euros has to be paid by June 30th and where that money would come from is unknown.
Barcelona seems destined for bankruptcy and perhaps this could result in the club going public? I’m not quite an expert on the matter so I can’t speak on if going public would save the club but I do know that major clubs like Manchester United, Arsenal, and AS Roma are publicly owned so such an ownership model is tried and tested.
Botched the Biggest Chance
As much as Barca fans wanted Messi to remain at the club for life, such a possibility has to be impossible at this point. After the Spanish newspaper, El Mundo dropped a bombshell front-page breakdown of Messi’s contract, it really shed light on just how out of control the finances are at Barcelona. Below is a breakdown of the front-page thanks to sky sports transfer guru, Fabrizio Romano.
Irish Examniner - Front Page of El Mundo
A staggering 138 million euros per year is absolutely mind-boggling. Whether you agree on if he should be paid that much money or not, there’s no way that isn’t killing the club financially, especially during the pandemic.
To make matters worse, the current state of the club has Messi wanting out which he made abundantly clear over the summer. With his contract due to expire in June, a player that Barca is currently paying over $167 million a year, will walk for free. All that Barca will get in return is a massive balance for the books but the opportunity to make a profit is gone. The 33-year old Argentine will most definitely walk this summer as he shouldn’t want to waste the last years of his prime at a dying club and I doubt the club can even afford to keep paying him.
90 Min
And believe me, I’m not saying Messi is to blame for the club’s plummet from greatness, recent history of horrendous transfers and poor judgment among the board are the reasons Barca has taken such a steep fall from grace. Instead, I feel bad for Messi, the club botched the opportunity to get the best out of him up until the very end of his greatness. Now, he’ll walk and what could have been added to his legacy will forever be a “what if”.
Free Up The Books It’s Rebuild Time
Right now, there’s a small group of players that are probably not for sale at Barcelona
Pedri
Trincao
Frenkie De Jong
Ansu Fati
Sergino Dest
Clement Lenglet
Ronald Arujo
Riqui Puig
Oscar Mingueza
MARCA
Lenglet is the oldest of the bunch at 25 and many of these young players have helped prop up the dying club this season. On the other hand, the club boasts a handful of older players that the club needs to sell while they still hold value. There are most definitely clubs that would welcome signings of Gerard Pique and Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba (for the right price). Plus the club could look to offload the likes of Antoine Griezmann, Philip Coutinho, Samuel Umtiti, and Ousmane Dembele. Hell, maybe even Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
For a club in such a dire situation, you would think that literally, nothing is off the table. It seems like only the sale of the club’s star keeper, would generate a significant payday considering his market value but even if players like Pique and Umtiti don’t generate huge paydays for the club, they’ll be off the books and the money can be spent elsewhere.
Barca NEED to get aggressive this summer. An overhaul is needed and even if they sell even half the players listed, that would be tremendous progress.
The only problem is that Barca has really hurt the careers of numerous players such as Coutinho and Dembele. Their market value is a mere image of what it once was which will only hurt Barca when they try to sell.
Plus even if the club sells plenty of players, will the club even be able to use that revenue to buy new ones, or will all the money made from player sales be used to fend off bankruptcy?
Look to Chelsea
If we are being honest, we could see a club that mirrors 2019-2020 Chelsea. A side that was reliant on young players from the youth program with a handful of reliable veteran players mixed in. Barca already has a handful of players from Barcelona B in the senior squad such as Fati and Mingueza. If such a formula can work in the Premier League (Chelsea made it to the FA Cup Final last year, and finished fourth in the Prem) it can definitely work in the less competitive Spanish league.
All in All
When all is said and done, Barca is in a world of hurt and whoever takes over as President of the club will have a monumental task set before them. For now, we will wait and see if the club can secure a top-four finish as they are currently in third place, eight points behind league leaders Atletico Madrid.
I feel for Messi but I also feel for the countless young stars such as Dembele and Coutinho whose careers Barcelona has greatly hindered. I also feel for the fans around the world who have watched their beloved club transition from greatness to despair. Hopefully, for the sake of the sport, Barca gets back on the right path but for the Catalan giant, the light at the end of the tunnel is quite far away and perhaps it is out of reach altogether.
