Damage is done though...retaining him did not ruin the club all by itself. But the club totally fumbled its dealings with BOTH Neymar and Messi. In the former case, they might has well have lit his transfer fee on fire for all the good it did on the pitch. They bought remarkably badly. In the latter case, they should have shown him the door years ago, before they bankrupted themselves paying his wages.Glad to see Barca effectively show Messi the door. It’s a huge reality check for him as the money he has been earning for so long is obscene (£123m a season). As much as I’d like to see him play here in England, I’d hope the clubs here have more sense. It looks like he’ll either go to the low standard French league with PSG or perhaps even home to Argentina. He’s still got a few more years yet I think he’s simply too expensive to play in any of Europe’s top leagues now. There will always be that question over him I think, he should have played in more than one country IMO.
Barcelona's story is one of a rich, privileged club breaking itself trying to keep up with still richer, even more privileged clubs.
Man City and PSG have pushed the insanity of football finances into stomach-churning new territory. It's madness to try and compete with them financially, because their plan has always been to disrupt the hierarchy through financial doping. Typically, mere corporations can't compete with nation-states at that game.
What's next? Does nation-state ownership of professional teams become a normal model? It's pretty much the only way to keep on the current trajectory...