Spain remains in a “state of alarm”, activated by the prime minister Pedro Sanchez a fortnight ago.
This is a country that is struggling to cope with a mounting
coronavirus crisis as its death toll exceeded China’s this week with 769
lives lost on Friday – Spain’s largest single-day surge – bringing the
total number of fatalities to 4,858 from 64,000 cases.
With
the pandemic at the forefront of people’s minds, the country’s
second-richest football club is not immune from feeling the effects.
Barcelona have announced plans to reduce player and staff wages in a bid
to “minimise the economic impact” caused by the outbreak.
Barcelona divided over wage cut proposal
During the crisis, it is understood that Barcelona want to reduce
salaries by 70 per cent while the players have offered to cut their
wages by 30 per cent for the rest of the season. As it stands, no
agreement has been reached.
The club are adamant there will be wage cuts, beginning retrospectively from March 19, so where does this leave Lionel Messi?
The
Argentine, whose contract expires next summer, earns a reported
£500,000-a-week. His salary amounts to over £31m, before bonuses.
Barcelona
sit two points clear at the top of La Liga, but the fractious
relationship between the club and its players has brought scrutiny to a
clause in Messi’s deal which would allow him to leave on a free transfer
this summer.
The changing room is divided, and with the
reduction in wages set to be felt across the board – even for the
women’s team – Messi’s view on the situation could prove decisive.
The
Catalan club’s wage costs exceed any other team in sport, while
matchday income of around £5.5m per game has also stopped helping offset
expenditures. Despite last season’s revenue being recorded at £726m,
megastores and the club museum have also been closed.
Barcelona
hope to push through the wage cut under “ERTE”, the temporary
employment regulation that has been set up, but the true cost of
potentially alienating its players may only be felt further down the
line.
A presidential election, friction and a waiting game
With La Liga suspended indefinitely, so too the battle to be elected
Barcelona’s figurehead has ground to a halt, with the next presidential
election set for June 2021.
Messi had hoped for an outcome before committing to a new deal, but amid reports that he has vowed to quit if Josep Maria Bartomeu is allowed to stay on for another term, the club’s attempted strategy to enforce a hefty wage cut casts further doubt over his future.
Messi is the captain and Bartomeu knows this move will likely lead to
his departure in 15 months’ time, but his final objective is to tie the
club’s talisman down to a ‘contract for life’.
Earlier this
season, sporting director Eric Abidal became embroiled in a public
dispute with the Argentine when he called out several unnamed players
for not having the right attitude under former manager Ernesto Valverde.
Messi
replied on social media: “Those responsible for the area of sports
management must assume their responsibilities and above all take charge
of the decisions they make.
“Finally, I think that when
talking about players, we should give names because otherwise, we are
getting everyone dirty and feeding things that are said and are not
true,” he added.
Xavi and Barca’s next ‘footballing project’
It was reported in Spain that Messi wanted Xavi to replace Valverde
as manager, but with the 2010 World Cup winner committed for now to his
first managerial role with Al Sadd in Qatar, Quique Setien was named his
surprise successor.
Given the delay to the 2019/20 season
being completed, and potential subsequent late start to the next
campaign, the picture of precisely who will mount a challenge to
Bartomeu remains unclear.
Renewing Messi’s contract remains
the job of the current president, but Victor Font – who has been tipped
to replace Bartomeu – spoke of his intentions were he to be elected via
democratic vote.
What weighs heavily in his favour is Messi’s desire to stay at Barcelona, prolonging his love affair with the club that started as a 13-year-old when he arrived at La Masia from Rosario. His family life is settled at his compound in Bellamar, a prestigious and expensive suburb of Castelldefels on the outskirts of Barcelona.
In an interview with Marca in January, Font not only spoke
of his desire for Xavi to lead his “footballing project”, but
acknowledged the need to look towards the future, with Messi turning 33
by the time he could be elected in June 2021.
He said: “I’m
in tune with Xavi, in relation to the project, and personally I love
talking to him about football and I hope he can lead our footballing
project. We have a lot of challenges for the next five or 10 years. A
key one, and one of the first, is the management of the end of [Lionel]
Messi [as he gets towards retiring].”
Messi is understood to
be keen on Xavi returning as head coach, which will only likely prolong
his stay despite Font’s admission that plans for life after the
32-year-old must be set in motion.
The reason for the player
insisting on a release clause being inserted in his contract is not
down to money or the state of his relationship with the president and
the club but solely based on his own physical condition at his advancing
age.
Alternative options closed off
Messi appears set to end his career having not played in England, and
one potential route into the Premier League was a reunion with Pep
Guardiola at Manchester City, who will themselves be faced with a squad
overhaul this summer in their bid to catch up with champions-elect
Liverpool.
But the club’s ongoing fight to appeal UEFA’s
decision to ban them from European competition for two years means that
Messi is more unlikely than ever to be heading to the Etihad any time
soon. Similarly, United and Inter Milan do not hold the same appeal to
Messi as they did when they were at the peak of their powers around a
decade ago.
Paris Saint-Germain would in theory be another
option in terms of being able to afford his wages but Neymar has
experienced “la jaula de oro” [the Spanish expression for a golden cage]
as Donato Di Campli, the former agent of Marco Verratti described life
at the Parc des Princes.
Di Campli had tried to secure
Verratti a move to Barcelona last summer before he was replaced by Mino
Raiola, and while the notion alone of cantering to domestic titles year
on year in the French league is unlikely to appeal to Messi, he will be
well aware of Neymar’s own struggle to leave the club last summer.
In Paris, Messi would be earning good money, but competition is what
he has always craved. With PSG desperate to end their wait to win the
Champions League under owner Nasser Al-Khelaifi, it would be an
arrangement that suits the club more than the player.
Planning
for the post-Messi era is a scenario Barcelona have been reluctant to
even contemplate, with Bartomeu saying last November that the Argentine
could extend his contract “indefinitely”.
He said: “Surely
it will be the wish of all parties, if he (Messi) feels strong and
ambitious, to extend this contract indefinitely. Ultimately it is he who
must decide. He has earned the right to decide when he will stop
playing football.
“But he wants to finish his playing career
at Barcelona. Over the next two or three seasons our leader will
continue to be Leo Messi. There’s no doubt that he is still young, still
strong. He is still ambitious.”
Neymar and Messi’s future intertwined?
Messi is determined to prolong his 19-year stay, but he wants to be
part of a side that can dominate domestically and compete in Europe once
more, having last won the Champions League in 2015.
Bartomeu
has vowed to assemble a squad that can fulfil the player’s wishes for a
more competitive team, and certainly bringing Neymar back to the Nou
Camp would smooth over the cracks.
The Brazilian was once
again linked with a return in the Spanish papers this week, where the
word was that the Catalans were ready to activate Article 17 to liberate
the Brazilian from this so-called gilded cage in the French capital.
This
article is a rather archaic rule that many clubs aren’t even aware of
and seldom use, when a player has two years left on his current deal.
In
Neymar’s five-year contract, he is entitled to ask FIFA to set the
price for his transfer. The issue for Barcelona is that the world
governing body are unlikely to set a valuation for the forward which is
less than £150m, more or less the same fee that PSG have asked for
Neymar in any case.
Beyond the appeal of being reunited with Messi and Luis Suarez when he returns from injury, Neymar would be returning to a club that is very different to the one he left. There is uncertainty over what the squad will look like next season.
According to Mundo Deportivo, they have reactivated their
interest in out-of-favour Tottenham midfielder Tanguy Ndombele. Lautaro
Martinez has been tracked for over three years, but Inter Milan are
demanding over £90m for the Argentine forward.
Furthermore, Barcelona are preparing to part ways with eight players during the summer transfer window, according to Diario Sport.
Brazilian goalkeeper Norberto Neto, Samuel Umtiti, Carles Alena,
midfielders Ivan Rakitic, Arturo Vidal, Philippe Coutinho, and forwards
Antoine Griezmann and Martin Braithwaite will all reportedly be placed
on the transfer lit.
Indeed, there is uncertainty over how
long Setien will be in charge, and while many have called for football
to use to enforced break as a chance to reset, Messi would claim that
Barcelona have been in need of a reboot for some time.
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