Where did Lionel Messi and Barcelona go wrong?

You must have had your collective heads in the sand if you can’t believe how Barcelona and Lionel Messi have reached the current toxic state of their relationship.

The sense of shock is palpable, of course, but it shouldn’t surprise us at all.

Our captain and greatest player of all time has been hinting that all was not well behind the scenes for months, and much of it has made its way into the public domain.

In isolation, much of what has happened in recent years is a standard rate for most football clubs.

Not strengthening in the right areas, management issues, etc.

Photo credit should read JOSEP LAGO / AFP via Getty Images

However, where things started to unravel for Barcelona and Leo dates back to July 2015. The month in which Josep Maria Bartomeu was legitimately elected club president.

His initial tactic of hiring Arda Turan should have roused the culers from their collective slumber. Despite being a great Atleti player, he was not at all a ‘Barça player’.

And that firm set the tone for a string of ill-advised purchases since then.

Not to mention the systematic destruction of La Masia as we knew it. Think about how many graduates have been laid off in the past five years and are now enjoying careers elsewhere.

Not everything would have become the Barça standard, of course, but it is as if the academy had not existed for the most part.

Perhaps Messi’s biggest problem has to be the lack of a ‘winning project’.

Number 10 was 18 days away from his 28th birthday when Barça lifted the Champions League for the last time. National league and cup victories aside, that the Blaugranes have wasted their best years as a player is a farce.

Photo by Manu Fernandez / Pool via Getty Images

He is as guilty as any other player for the outings at the hands of Juventus, Roma, Liverpool and Bayern, and his body language towards the end of the latter was unforgivable, but in at least two of those games he was very disappointed by those around him. .

Without forgetting the appointments of directors who have not exactly inspired either, although they make us believe that Messi had nothing but respect for Ernesto Valverde.

How many times, as fans, have we felt that Leo has been carrying the weight of the team on his shoulders? Which has been the talisman that everyone has turned to when the going gets tough.

Barça is a rudderless boat these days and has been for a while, and they apparently have no idea where they are going.

They are certainly not the beaters of the world that they were five years ago.

8-2 just brought everything into focus and when the dust settles can you really blame Messi for wanting to leave? Is it any wonder you’ve had enough?