Barcelona’s downfall: cash-strapped, Messi’s departure, getting rid of Griezmann. How low will the Catalans fall?

Barcelona, along with Real Madrid, are among the biggest football brands in the world and the Catalans can count on a huge fan base. But that brand is fading significantly, as the summer transfer window has portrayed. What is the path back to the top?

It’s sad to see how far the famous Barcelona C.F. brand has fallen . Yet one man is most to blame for all this, former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu.

His incomprehensible actions put Barcelona so deeply in debt that he resigned in November 2020 after enormous public pressure. According to the Spanish media, Barcelona has a debt of over 900 million euros, which logically has sporting consequences.

The new president Joan Laporta is trying to put out the fire, but the former Blaugranas ruler has added a few litres of petrol to his fire. This is because in La Liga it is compulsory to comply with the salary cap, which is based on the club’s accounts.

And since Barcelona are in a huge financial crisis, the salary cap for the 2021/22 season has been significantly reduced. But Bartomeu has planted players like Umtiti, Griezmann, Lenglet, Pjanic and De Jong with huge sums in their contracts. Messi’s fabulous contract perhaps doesn’t even need mentioning.

Joan Laporta had no choice but to cut back. He needed a big marker to cut the biggest star, Lionel Messi, who for the first time in his professional career wore a club jersey other than Barcelona’s. Even so, the Culés couldn’t put new signings Memphis Depay and Eric García on the roster because the sum of their salaries still exceeded the salary cap.

Laporta was thus torn from his heels by Gerard Piqué, who voluntarily reduced his salary, so he will play in Barcelona, as he says, for a few euros. Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets followed in his footsteps. Instead of being rewarded for all they have done for Barcelona at the end of their careers, the club’s legends will play for almost nothing.

Another underlining of the huge crisis is the case of Emerson. At the beginning of August, Barcelona brought him over from Betis for €9 million with the idea that he had a great future at Camp Nou. However, it found it needed money and after 29 days Emerson moved to Tottenham for 25 million.

An even worse example of Barcelona’s decline is the case of Antoine Griezmann. The French striker was bought from Atlético Madrid two years ago for 140 million euros to help win trophies. Griezmann, however, celebrated winning only one Copa del Rey. Among other things, Messi had to leave because of his high salary, and now the Blaugranas have got rid of Griezmann. He went on loan back to Atlético Madrid, his option will be 40 million euros.

A star replacement for a star player? Oh, no. Luuk de Jong came to Barcelona on the last day of the transfer window on loan. The 31-year-old Dutchman, who didn’t even play in the starting line-up at Sevilla and came more from the bench. Perhaps nothing proves the downfall of Barcelona more than this exchange.

Barcelona are simply drowning in a crisis from which there is no way out yet. They must once again rely on their famous La Masia academy to pull more talent out of. Already the fans are admiring the great Pedri, with Ansu Fati back from injury. They must be the new driving forces of the Catalans, otherwise dark times are looming.

Source: Transfermarkt