Here’s a fact that is still sinking in for Barcelona fans: Lionel Messi is no longer an FC Barcelona player. After two decades at the club, arguably the greatest player of all-time, who rose through the ranks at Barcelona and achieved tremendous success at the club, is now gone. Messi didn’t leave because of a desire to explore other teams or cultures or move his family to a different city or even to get the highest wage possible; Messi left because Barcelona, after years of overspending on transfer fees for decidedly mediocre players, along with severely inflated wages, was already over the La Liga imposed salary cap. Now, there are questions (rightly so) surrounding the exemption application and whether Real Madrid supporter and La Liga President Javier Tebas interfered to ensure that Messi could not continue as a Barcelona player, but that, along with the financial effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, is a different discussion for a different time. The questions that need to be asked are: How did it come to this? Why did Barcelona need to pray that Tebas would grant an exemption in the first place? Why was there no salary cap room set aside for the greatest Barcelona player of all-time to continue at, and perhaps retire with, the club? The answer is: Bartomeu, La Masia, and the role of youth players at Barcelona.
Barcelona has always been, and will continue to be, one of the biggest clubs in the world. The list of great players who have played for the club could fill pages and pages. But, one staple of Barcelona’s success has always been homegrown talent. La Masia, the Barcelona youth academy, is a famed institution that has produced exceptional talents. A top academy in the world, we don’t need to reach far back in the history books to see what kind of talent has come through the academy: Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez, Carles Puyol, Pedro, Gerard Pique* (left for Manchester United before returning for a nominal fee), Sergio Busquets, and, of course, Lionel Messi. These players, one way or another, all found themselves at La Masia, rose through the ranks, and eventually established themselves as indispensable first team players.
Barcelona never exclusively relied on La Masia graduates, but always brought in transfers that would supplement the academy stars, not replace the academy stars. Players like Ronaldihno, Brazilian Ronaldo, Neymar, Eto’o and Mascherano were brought in to play alongside the likes of Iniesta, Busquets, and Messi, adding talent and supplementing the team. And, using this strategy, Barcelona achieved great success, winning 4 Champions League trophies between 2005 and 2015, along with numerous La Liga titles, Copa del Rey trophies, and other national and regional cups.
This all changed under Josep Bartomeu. Barcelona’s attitude shifted from developing youth players and supplementing the team as needed to let youth players leave and replacing youth players with other talent, usually for an exorbitant transfer fee and a hefty wage packet. Suddenly, star youth prospects were being pushed out and replaced. One doesn’t have to look far to see how the talent from La Masia has performed elsewhere: Eric Garcia became an elite young center-back (and Barcelona is lucky to have him back); Dani Olmo’s performances with Dinamo Zagreb and RB Leipzig earned him a call-up to the Spanish national team; Carles Perez has shown flashes of brilliance with AS Roma; and Marc Cucurella has developed into an in-demand attacking left-back. These are just a few examples of players who saw their path into the first team blocked by during Bartomeu’s tenure and moved elsewhere to get a chance.
But blocking the path to the first team wasn’t the sole issue; if it were, Barcelona probably would still have the ability to re-sign Messi. No, this issue was coupled with absolutely outrageous spending. Don’t get me wrong, certain signings during Bartomeu’s reign were great: Pedri, Sergino Dest, and Frankie de Jong will be Barcelona stars for the next decade, but with the sheer number of transfers that occurred, a few were bound to work out. Other transfers, more expensive transfers, drained Barcelona’s resources. Phillip Coutinho: 120 million euros. Ousmane Dembele: 105 million euros. Antoine Griezmann: 120 million euros. These fees do not include the wages for these players which, when adding Samuel Umtiti and including bonuses and fees, reach nearly 100 million euros gross per season. It’s clear that this “replace, not supplement” strategy caused massive spending and drove Barcelona into severe debt. But there is one player who epitomizes the Barcelona transfer problem: Martin Braithwaite.
Now, I have nothing against Martin Braithwaite, and I think he has actually been a pretty good addition to the Barcelona squad, so it’s not so much that Martin Braithwaite is the issue, but rather the reasoning behind signing Martin Braithwaite. As you all remember, Braithwaite was signed outside of the transfer window after Barcelona was granted an emergency exception due to an injury to Ousmane Dembele. Braithwaite’s 18-million-euro release clause was triggered, he was given a reasonable (by Barcelona’s standards) wage packet, and he joined Barcelona. The issue with the Braithwaite transfer is that rather than looking to La Masia and giving academy players like Hikori Abe and newly-signed Rey Manaj a chance to demonstrate their talents, Barcelona instead relied on an outside player. Barcelona replaced an injured player, rather than giving La Masia academy graduates and using transfers to supplement their homegrown players.
So, the question becomes: what should Barcelona do now? Bartomeu is out (and in serious legal trouble), and Joan Laporta, a man who Barcelona achieved incredible success under, is back in charge. Barcelona must now look to a post-Messi future. Luckily for Barcelona, Laporta is the right man for the “supplement, not replace” system. Many players mentioned earlier, including Sergio Busquets and the now departed Messi, got their start in the first team while Laporta was originally in charge (2003-2010). Sure, Laporta brought in players like Ronaldinho to supplement the squad, but he also allowed managers like Pep Guardiola the freedom to test young players and see if they could make it in the Barcelona first team. Laporta has a lot of issues to handle during his second time at Barcelona’s helm, including fraud allegations, Barcegate, and, of course, Barcelona’s inflated wage bill. If Laporta goes back to his roots and looks back at his first term he can right the Barcelona ship. Laporta can use talent youth players and remain an elite European club while cutting down on the wage bill.
The key to fixing Barcelona and future success is going back to the pre-Bartomeu strategy that created incredible success: supplement, not replace.
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