The 2019/20 season is getting worse for FC Barcelona. After failing to win a single title from all competitions that followed, Barca had to close the season with an embarrassing defeat to FC Bayern with a score of 8-2 in the Champions League quarter-finals. Not finished there, one week after the humiliating defeat, Barca’s nightmare continues. The star and captain who has been at Barca since 2001, Lionel Messi, expressed his desire to leave Barca.
Previously, what we knew was Messi and Messi was Barca. Lionel Messi will become a one man club and will end his career at FC Barcelona. In fact, it is not impossible for Messi to continue his career as a coach or any position at the FC Barcelona club. However, Messi’s decision that took everyone by surprise was enough to make us suspect that something was wrong with FC Barcelona at the moment.
Slightly retreating to the 2014/15 season, Barcelona ended an excellent season by winning the treble. Barca’s squad at that time was the best on all fronts. The trio of Messi, Suarez and Neymar became the scariest trio in Europe that season. In midfield, they have layers of players like Xavi, Iniesta, Busquet, Rakitic, Mascherano and Sergi Roberto. At the back, Jordi Alba, Dani Alves, Pique and Ter Stegen complemented in goal. All of them are in top form and arguably the best in Europe.
But who would have thought that Barcelona had actually decreased since that season. Barca did not experience an extreme decline so that they did not win a title at all. Since that season until now, Barca still won 3 La Liga titles, 4 Copa del Rey and 2 Spanish Super Cups. It’s just that, it seems that there is a systemic problem that is not immediately visible from the outside, so that Barcelona is now in chaos.
The start of Joan Laporta’s leadership that changed Barca
Stepping further back to 2003, Barcelona has just had a new president after two previous presidents failed to award a single title within a 3-year duration. A Spanish politician, Joan Laporta, was elected after getting a majority of voters at that time.
Initially, Laporta started his leadership less smoothly. The campaign promise to bring in David Beckham failed to fulfill. The superstar actually joined a rival club, Real Madrid. Laporta then recruited other players to make up for his failure to recruit Beckham. This substitute player is Ronaldinho.
The presence of Ronaldinho turned out to be the beginning of the revival of FC Barcelona. Ronaldinho is not only at the center of Barcelona’s game on the field, but also increasingly smooths cooperation between Barcelona and big brands. Nike is one of the brands that has become increasingly attached to Barcelona due to Ronaldinho’s presence at the Catalan club.
Barcelona build a team with Ronaldinho at the center. Plus several young squads who graduated from the La Masia academy such as Xavi and Iniesta, FC Barcelona was transformed into a scary club in Europe. And what is no less important, of course, is the birth of a prodigy from Argentina, Lionel Messi. Messi started his debut at FC Barcelona and little by little made an important contribution to FC Barcelona. Barca won two La Liga titles and one Champions League title in the 2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons.
Despite the various controversies and criticisms that came to Laporta, including when one of his successful teams, Sandro Russel, resigned from the position of director in 2005, Joan Laporta corrected one by one the problems that existed at FC Barcelona. Not only achievements on the field, Laporta also improved Barcelona’s financial condition.
With the support of Ferran Soriano as Vice President, FC Barcelona’s revenue continues to increase. Initially Barcelona’s income only reached 84 million pounds in the 2002/03 season before Laporta took the lead. Three years later, Barca’s income increased to 163 million pounds in the 2005/06 season and increased to 276 million pounds in the 2007/08 season. Barca’s financial record also improved, from initially experiencing a loss of 65 million pounds to recording a profit of 78 million pounds.
Development the Pep Guardiola Era
FC Barcelona increasingly dominate Europe after appointing Pep Guardiola as coach. Initially, Pep Guardiola was doubted by many parties. The reason is, the coach from Spain has never had experience coaching a big club before. Guardiola has only handled Barcelona B before being appointed as head coach at FC Barcelona.
Pep managed to answer these doubts. From the hands of Pep Guardiola, FC Barcelona was born, which became the best club in the world. 4 La Liga titles, 2 Copa del Rey titles, 3 Spanish Super Cup titles, 2 Champions League titles, 2 European Super Cup titles, and 2 Club World Cup titles are a series of trophies given to Barcelona by Pep.
However, that is not the case for Pep Guardiola’s greatest legacy for Barcelona. Pep Guardiola is a coach who provides many opportunities to young players. During Pep Guardiola’s coaching at FC Barcelona, new players who graduated from the La Masia academy were constantly appearing in the Barcelona first team.
Most importantly, Pep Guardiola has established Lionel Messi as one of the best players in the world. Messi, who was still young when Pep started working with FC Barcelona, was transformed into a Lionel Messi who could lead his team-mates. Messi’s ability is not just the ability to dribble, but also his cleverness in reading opponent games. Pep built Messi into a very perfect player, which has never even existed in the history of world football.
The Beginning of Barcelona’s Setback
FC Barcelona with Pep Guardiola and Lionel messi is a very scary team in Europe. They never missed competing in the semifinals of the Champions League from the 2007/08 season to the 2012/13 season. But then, the heyday of FC Barcelona gradually decreased.
Joan Laporta stepped down from the position of president after losing the election in 2010. He was replaced by Sandro Rosell, who was his successful team when he was elected in 2003. Rosell’s leadership brought about a new policy which was considered to hinder regeneration in La Masia. Rosell brought in young players to play at Barcelona B. This made it difficult for La Masia academy graduates to move up to a higher level.
To make matters worse, Barca received a transfer ban penalty by FIFA after being proven to have committed violations in the recruitment of players under 18 years. Rosell’s tenure then had to end sooner after he was found guilty of money laundering. Rosell was imprisoned and his position was replaced by Bartomeu, who was then vice president.
Transferring players in the Bartomeu Era
FC Barcelona performed brilliantly in Bartomeu’s first season in charge. The presence of Suarez made the MSN trio (Messi, Suarez, Neymar) formed on the front lines of FC Barcelona. Barca were unbeaten in that season and won the treble. Bartomeu then won the presidential election in 2015 defeating Joan Laporta who tried to return to the election.
From here, it is increasingly clear that something is wrong with FC Barcelona. The problem that is most easily seen is the matter of player transfers. FC Barcelona turned into a club that likes to spend money on recruiting expensive players. To make matters worse, the majority of expensive players brought in by FC Barcelona were just failed purchases that did not contribute much to the club.
Bartomeu’s first season in charge, after Xavi decided to move to Al Sadd, Bartomeu spent 51 million euros to bring in Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal. The transfer ban that still hit Barcelona made Arda Turan only able to play in January 2016. Even though Barca signed the Turkish player in July 2015. After starting to defend Barcelona, Arda Turan’s performance was not as expected. In 3 seasons Arda Turan only defended Barca in 36 matches before being loaned to Istanbul Basaksehir in 2018.
The following season in 2016, Bartomeu spent a total of 125 million Euros on signing Andre Gomez, Paco Alcacer, Lucas Digne, Samuel Umtiti and Jesper Cillessen. Of the series of names, only Samel Umtiti later became a regular in FC Barcelona’s main squad.
The summer of 2017, Neymar moved to PSG. There are many stories that have accompanied Neymar’s move from FC Barcelona to PSG. However, Neymar’s comments on an Instagram post that is discussing Bartomeu, explain the Brazilian player’s relationship with the president. “This president is a joke”, he wrote in the comment column of the post.
Bartomeu spent 222 million Euros signing new players in the summer of 2017 after Neymar left. Ousmane Dembele, Paulinho, Nelson Semedo and Gerard Deulofeu were the players who were brought in that season. Again, not a single player managed to show the expected performance. Ousmane Dembele, who became the club’s most expensive purchase of all time, played only 23 times with 4 goals in that season. Barca’s attacks are no longer as sharp as when there was the MSN trio in attack.
It didn’t stop there, in January 2018 Bartomeu made a scene again. After failing in the summer, he again tried to bring in Liverpool midfielder, Phillipe Coutinho. This time he succeeded, but had to make up for a very large fee, 145 million euros. This figure is also a new club transfer record.
Coutinho’s performance was not as brilliant as when he was at Liverpool. One and a half seasons the Brazilian midfielder defended Barcelona and only contributed 22 goals in 76 matches. Coutinho was then loaned to FC Bayern in the 2019/20 season.
The next two seasons Bartomeu is still happy to spend large sums of money to bring in players. In the 2018/19 season he spent 130 million Euros to bring in Malcom, Clement Lenglet, Arthur and Arturo Vidal. The following season he spent 270 million Euros to sign Griezmann, Frenkie de Jong, Neto, Junior Firpo and Emerson. Again, the contributions made by these players were not worth the money spent.
Painful defeats in the Champions League
The transfer of players who seem to have no direction also has an impact on FC Barcelona’s performance on the field. Barca won La Liga three times during the Bartomeu era in the 2015/16, 2017/18 and 2018/19 seasons. However, FC Barcelona is no longer the ruler of Europe after many painful defeats in the Champions League.
The 2015/16 and 2016/17 seasons Barca were eliminated by Atletico Madrid and Juventus in the quarter-finals. The following season, it was AS Roma’s turn to get rid of Barca in the quarter-finals. This time in quite a painful way. Barca should be eliminated after losing 3-0 at Olympico. Even though in the first leg Barca won 4-1.
The following season another painful defeat occurred. This time by Liverpool in the semi-finals. Barca won 3-0 at Camp Nou and are ready to take on the second leg at Anfield with confidence. But Wijnaldum’s 2 goals and Divock Origi’s 2 goals made Barca lose 0-4 and had to be knocked out by Liverpool.
And the most painful of course in the 2019/20 season. In the midst of a pandemic atmosphere and the Champions League quarter-finals continued with a 1 leg system. FC Barcelona face FC Bayern in neutral. FC Bayern is indeed showing extraordinary performance in the 2019/20 season, but no one thought that Barca would be slaughtered by a score of 8-2.
The aftermath of this humiliating defeat was the dismissal of the coach, Quique Setien. Eric Abidal, who previously served as sporting director, was also fired. Then Ronald Koeman was appointed as the new coach of FC Barcelona. A few days after being appointed, Koeman met one of Messi’s colleagues, Luis Suarez, and said he had to leave the club this season. And a few days later Messi announced his desire to move from FC Barcelona.
