This is not the first time stories of Lionel Messi wanting to leave Barcelona have surfaced. We tend to hear some tall tale of the Barcelona ace wanting to seek pastures new every few years. Which ends up culminating in him signing a bumper new deal with improved terms. But this time seems different from all the others.
Arguably for the first time, there seems to be actions on Messi's part that back up the claim he really does want to leave Barcelona. Earlier this week it was reported that Messi failed to report to the club's pre-season training and further reports saying that he no longer considers himself a Barcelona player. It is no understatement to say that the last month has been a turbulent time for Barcelona.
After officially missing out on the La Liga title to Real Madrid, the Barcelona captain launched into an angry tirade after his team lost 2-1 to Osasuna. In a post-match interview he said "We were a very erratic, very weak, low-intensity team... we lost a lot of points and today's game is a summary of the season". If that doesn't sound damning enough he even went on to say that if Barcelona's form didn't improve then they would lose their impending second-leg clash against Napoli in the Champions League.
Although we all know Barcelona would go onto win their game against Napoli, the subsequent 8-2 embarrassment at the hands of eventual champions Bayern Munich sparked the disaster that Barca are facing right now. Ever since that game there has been constant talk of Messi leaving the Catalan giants.
Messi, for all his footballing greatness, has been relatively mute for much of his career in the limelight. There are few eyebrow raising comments he ever made publicly but this season we have seen numerous times where there looks like there is tension between him and the management. Earlier in February, Messi hit back at Barcelona's director of football Eric Abidal, who suggested the squad's dislike of head coach Ernesto Valverde was a key reason for him being sacked. Messi challenged him to name names of players after making that comment and that he should worry about his own responsibilities.
There were media reports later on in the year about Barcelona's players being reluctant to take a salary cut due to financial complications the club were experiencing due to the losing match ticket sales. Messi didn't take well to this either. He responded saying "It didn't surprise [the players] that inside the club there are some trying to put us under the microscope and pressure us into doing something that we were always clear we would do".
There has been suggestions in the media that Messi has been at odds with the board's President Josep Maria Bartomeu dating back to last summer. Messi has not made it a secret he loved playing with Neymar Jr before his move to PSG and would like to see him return. But no such deal happened and reports say Messi felt like the board didn't do enough to sign him back. Alternatively Antoine Griezmann was bought from Atletico Madrid for a massive £108 million fee. Griezmann is yet to find his best form at Barca whilst there has been a lot of criticism of Barcelona's recruitment in the last few seasons. In the Champions league quarter-final it was laughable that their 3 all-time most expensive signings were either on the bench (Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele) or playing for the opposing team on loan (Philippe Coutinho). Baring in mind Coutinho didn't even start the game, he finished it with two goals and setting up another goal against his parent club. This no doubt was rubbing salt into their wounds.
In the aftermath of the defeat, Barcelona sacked their Quique Setien and hired Ronald Koeman as their new manager withing two days. It has been made very public that Barcelona are planning a massive exodus of players in their squad as they want to rebuild. Numerous players have been frozen out of the club's future plans like Luis Suarez. Messi is not one of the players Barca want to get rid of but there are reports saying that Suarez's potential departure is also influencing his decision to leave. If the media speculation is anything to go by: he's had enough of the people of whom are running the club.
Koeman had stated at a conference "Firstly, I do not know if I should convince Messi to stay, but it is clear that you want to have the best player in the world in your team instead of playing for a rival". It is doubtful that Koeman has anywhere near enough power to promise Messi the extent of boardroom changes that might help him to reconsider his decision. But the painful reality for Barca is that Messi is 33 year old now and has spent his 'prime years' failing to make the Champions League final. Despite already being a 4-time winner he hasn't reached the final since 2015 and Barcelona have notoriously been exiting the competition in humbling defeats to Roma, Liverpool and now Bayern Munich in consecutive years. He doesn't really have more time to waste sticking around at the club while they rebuild.
The defeat to Bayern may have been the last straw for him but it should be pointed out Barcelona didn't win any trophies at all this past season, which they haven't done this since the 2007-08 season. It's possible Bayern annihilating them in the UCL, may have persuaded him into thinking he has to change club in order to compete for the highest honours. Especially as Barcelona are re-evaluating how to be competitive again. He has been heavily linked with a reunion with Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. The Athletic reported last month that he and Guardiola had been in contact and has expressed a desire to join Man City. He still has one more year left on his contract as he did not exercise his option to leave Barcelona for free at the end of June. Barcelona believe Messi failed to issue a notice to leave the club before 10th June 2020 and has therefore missed his deadline to leave for free.
But this has not stopped Messi from still trying to leave for nothing. His camp have already sent Barcelona a fax declaring his desire to leave the club and insisting that there is a clause in his contract allowing him to do so. However the situation has gotten worse. Marca have reported that Barca have sacked their own law firm for advising Messi on how to leave as a free agent. Messi has not joined Barcelona for the first two days of pre-season training (at the time of writing) and even faces a £1.1 million fine from the club for doing so, reports Marca. La Liga have already issued a statement confirming that Messi's release clause of €700 million is still in place and he won't be able to leave unless a club pays that fee.
Even for a player many say is the best to ever play the beautiful game, it is extremely hard to see how or why a club would pay this extreme amount of money to sign him this summer. This would more than treble the current world record transfer fee, which doesn't make sense to do when he can be a free agent this time next year. And as special as he still is, he is 33 years old and would have little resale value after signing for a new club for at least a couple more years.
My prediction is that Messi has not yet played his last game for Barcelona. I don't believe the boardroom will have a change of heart and allow the talisman to leave for free. There is a massive risk that they could permanently ruin Messi's relationship with the club if they deny him a move. Which for PR reasons would be a nightmare for Barca; if their best ever player distances himself from them. Not even to mention the backlash from the fans on Bartomeu would be extraordinary. They will most likely uphold his eye-watering release clause though and he will have to wait until the summer of 2021 to leave- if he still wants to by then.
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