I think you’ve missed the key part of the equation - how much sacrifice would they have had to made to keep him and how damaging would that have been.
Barca have not just elected to not keep him. In fact, repairing relationships with Messi and getting him to stay was a priority for Laporte and one of the reasons he won his presidential race. The issue was they were too far in the hold financially to do it. Even if they signed him on a deal where he played for free they’d still need to find a way to cut another 200m off the wages before they could register him. They came to realize it was an impossible situation and so made the realization letting him go was the only viable option. The moves theyd have had to make to register him would have been enormous and likely to cause lasting damage to the club, all in an effort to squeeze one or two more years out of a 34 year old. So this isn’t a question of whether a club like Juve can improve on the pitch after selling Zidane. It is would they be worse off over the next several years by making the extensive sacrifices required to register him this year.
FWIW, this is FFP related, but is a specific Spanish league rule about the relationship between wages and revenue.
Aguero looking for an out from Barca because of the Messi situation
He got his lawyers scanning his contract as he feels betrayed!
Another one for the PSG Playboys Playground…!
could be the best thing for Barca…both as a club and as a football team.
not slagging Messi, but the pressure to stay competitive just to keep Messi probably impacted the recruitment and created a snake that started to eat its own tail.
best of luck to them, a great club and a fantastic city that has somewaht strayed from its principles in modern times.
i dont put this at Messis feet, its just one of those things where it become so good it starts eating itself
Agree. A fresh start wouldn’t be the worst thing for them. With Messi in the team they were always in ‘win now’ mode as you allude to. Without him, they can perhaps breathe a little. The outside expectations change.
I think they’re in good hands now with Laporta overseeing things, he inherited an epic financial mess from Bartomeu and his board, but to me he seems like the right guy to clean it up.
They still have a good core to keep them competitive this season, plus some really good young players to build the next team around. And to be honest I think Aguero does them a favour if he wants out of his contract. Doesn’t look great, but I’d happily let him walk.
He has signed but would not be able to play. It’s not a unique situation, but given how public Barca’s problems were I wouldnt have signed for them without a contingency in place to walk away if they were unable to register me.
