We knew things were bad at the Camp Nou between the Barcelona players and the board. We knew that Lionel Messi was upset but still we were shocked when the news came out that Messi had activated a clause in his contract that would allow him to leave on a free transfer this summer.
Although his contract is set to expire at the end of the 2020-21 season, Messi and his legal team believe the clause will allow him to terminate his deal unilaterally.
Paris Saint-Germain manager Thomas Tuchel has declared Lionel Messi is “very welcome” to join the club should the Barcelona star decide to pursue a move away from Camp Nou.
The Argentine legend has once again been linked with a possible Barca exit after seeing his side end the season without a trophy and lose 8-2 to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Tuchel himself failed to guide his side past Bayern on Sunday as the Bundesliga giants claimed their sixth Champions League title with a 1-0 win over PSG.
That is not a typo. Some members of the Barcelona board are actually in favor of selling the clubs best ever players, and one of the top five players ever to have played this game.
New Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman has publicly said he wants to build the team around Messi, but ESPN is reporting that some directors say that they would be prepared to listen to offers that would allow Koeman to rebuild the team at the same time as reducing the wage bill.
Does Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu really want to be remembered as the president who sold Lionel Messi?
Barcelona have hired their former player Ronald Koeman to replace Quique Setien, after the Spaniard was sacked for overseeing a poor end to the 2019/20 season.
Koeman has left his role as Netherlands head coach and has signed on a two-year deal, although the second year of that will come after the club’s next round of elections and, as such, there may be a new administration who’ll want to bring in their own coach.
For 2020/21, though, Koeman will be the man in charge as he seeks to steer Barcelona back to winning ways.
It was a disastrous end to the season for Barcelona. They threw away the La Liga title and were embarrassed in the Champions League by Bayern Munich.
The collapse cost manager Quique Setien and technical director Eric Abidal their jobs. Attention has now shifted to the Barcelona board whose incompetent board spending of €250 milllion on Ousmane Dembele and Philippe Coutinho to replace Neymar, played a big role in the mess that Barcelona finds itself in today.
But club president Josep Bartomeu does not accept blame for the demise of the club that Cruyff and Pep built. Instead, Bartomeu places the blame at the feet of Gerard Pique, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets.
Barcelona have sacked manager Quique Setien in the wake of their humiliating 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals.
The club fired Setien following a hastily-convened emergency meeting on Monday morning after suffering one of the darkest defeats of their 120-year history to cap a trophyless season.
Former Barcelona player and current Holland manager Ronald Koeman is poised to become the club’s new manager.
A statement on Barcelona’s official website read:
‘This is the first decision within a wider restructuring of the first team which will be agreed between the current technical secretary and the new coach, who will be announced in the coming days.’
Barcelona have no intention of activating the €111 million (£100m) release clause in Lautaro Martinez’s contract at Inter because they don’t have the money, but the Liga giants are still keen to thrash out a deal for the Argentine.
Those at San Siro have made any suitors of their South American forward aware that one window of opportunity will swing shut at the close of play on Tuesday.
For them, that is when the current release terms in Lautaro’s contract will expire.
Barcelona consider that clause to be valid for another week, through to July 15, but have no plans to take it up regardless.
Barcelona are prepared to sack Quique Setien as manager unless results drastically improve and they win the Liga title or Champions League this season.
The veteran coach, who only took the Camp Nou job in January as replacement for Ernesto Valverde, has lost the confidence of the Barca dressing room, while the club’s board are also unhappy with recent performances.
Unless Barca’s displays for the remainder of the 2019-20 campaign have a significant upswing, it is understood that it is inevitable Setien will leave his post in the summer.
Real Madrid went to the top of La Liga thanks to a hard-fought victory at Real Sociedad over the weekend.
Zinedine Zidane’s side are level on points with Barca, who drew 0-0 with Sevilla on Friday, but go top because of their superior head-to-head record.
Sergio Ramos’ penalty after the lively Vinicius Jr was fouled gave the visitors the lead. Karim Benzema doubled their advantage before Mikel Merino’s strike set up a tense finale.
Spain’s La Liga became the third major league this week to announce plans to restart its season. Previously we had heard from the Premier League and Serie A and all eyes turned to Spain where La Liga announced football will resume on June 11 after a three-month pause due to the coronavirus pandemic with the local derby between Sevilla and Real Betis, the government’s department for sport (CSD) said in a statement on Friday.
“At a meeting of the contact group they form alongside the CSD, the Spanish soccer federation (RFEF) and La Liga have agreed to the format of the final 11 rounds of fixtures of La Liga and the second division,” said the CSD’s statement.