Barcelona are being the subject of a player-led mutiny and everything points to the club being at its most negative spell.
Barcelona are a club in crisis since the start of the year. The Catalans are now on their third first-team coach of 2020 and suffered their most embarrassing defeat in recent years by an 8-2 margin against Bayern Munich. To top it all off, the misery is being compounded by Lionel Messi’s desires to leave the Camp Nou.
More from Everything Barca
- FC Barcelona tracking Belgian Wonderkid
- FC Barcelona vs Betis Player Ratings
- Barça boss Xavi to get contract extension
- FC Barcelona planning swoop for Arsenal midfielder
- Barcelona interested in €30 million wonderkid
Ronald Koeman is in the first few days as the Blaugrana head coach and has already started to take action. The Dutchman has deemed a few aged players as a surplus to requirements and Ivan Rakitic amongst those has already departed the club. The midfielder joined Sevilla on Tuesday for a fee of 1.5 million euros.
Diario GOL now claims that there is a massive rebellion in the dressing room against the head coach. Koeman’s decisions have not gone down among the Barca players who believe that the likes of Arturo Vidal, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez should be staying put at the club. Moreover, even those like Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba could be sold.
While the decision to sanction the sale of five first-team players has already taken a toll on the manager, there’s also a general consensus in the group of players that Koeman has not spoken convincingly with Messi with regard to his project, which may be a major factor that eventually ends up affecting the player’s future at the club.
Not only does the problem exist with just the existing players being told to go, but also descends onto the lack of signings made by the club. Bartomeu has not signed a single player who can feature regularly in the first-team and only those like Pedri and Francisco Trincao who are players for the future have been recruited.
Finally, there is also resentment over the pay cuts that the players have had to take. Barca’s board has been unjust in that regard and the roster is only getting paid 70% of its contractual wage. All in all, things don’t look ideal for the Spanish giants who start another season in about three weeks’ time.
What do you think the board and coach must collectively do to solve the difficult situation?