In the presidential stand of Camp Nou, Barcelona president Bartomeu wiped his face with his hand, took a deep breath, and said in a very helpless and dejected tone.
It seemed that he was not surprised by the result.
Although, he heard the boos at Camp Nou again.
Strictly speaking, he is no longer the president of Barcelona.
Today, Barcelona is in a stage without a chairman. It will be until after the general election in March that a new chairman is elected, and then Bartomeu will truly step down.
For the time being, he is anonymous.
"Tonight, the fighting spirit of this group of players was so bad, especially Messi, who made no contribution. I feel that we can no longer be polite to this sewer rat. We gave him everything, and that's enough!" said Pang, the club's legal director.
Di cursed angrily.
He has a long-standing grievance with Messi, especially Messi's annoying brother.
In fact, the Barcelona management is also very fed up with Messi's agent.
Who would have thought that Messi's agent, who is so dignified, can't even understand the contract and would make people laugh out loud if he told her about it.
"Let him go!" Ponti suggested.
Bartomeu turned his head and looked to the other side. Sitting there was Oscar Grau, CEO of Barcelona.
"I also agree that both in public and private matters, he should be let go!" Grau said.
Similar related discussions have actually been going on for a long time.
Many people think it started in 2020, but in fact it does not. It can be traced back to earlier, even very early.
From a tactical perspective, there has always been a saying that Messi's presence has seriously hindered Barcelona's tactical reform.
It's hard to say whether this statement is right or wrong, but it is indeed time for Barcelona to carry out reforms. If Messi stays, it will be difficult to promote such reforms.
This is not what Bartomeu's management said. Head coach Ronald Koeman mentioned this issue when he met with the management before taking charge of Barcelona.
A big break, Messi can’t stay!
Not only Messi, but also Busquets, Pique and others cannot be kept!
But this requires a lot of determination.
From the perspective of club operators, the presence of Messi and others has seriously affected the club's salary.
Since La Liga introduced the so-called salary cap system in 2013, it has been strictly stipulated that each team's salary expenditure cannot exceed 70% of the club's budget.
Barcelona is currently close to 700 million euros, reaching a very, very outrageous height.
The first to bear the brunt are veterans such as Messi, Busquets and Pique.
None of them have improved the team's strength, but they all account for staggering salary expenditures.
In the past few years, the club has been trying every means to eliminate redundant personnel, but the effect has not been very obvious.
Some players were sent away, but many more were ignored.
The reason is simple: the salaries are too high.
Bartomeu's team once held a meeting to discuss this issue. Why is Barcelona's salary out of control to this extent? And everyone's finger is pointed at Messi!
Because it is Messi's high salary that drives Barcelona's overall salary increase.
Previously, Bartomeu and other management teams got into trouble because of the unexpected exposure of Messi's contract.
Of course, the financial department also gave some statements that the club's debt is too high, close to 1.5 billion euros, of which short-term debt is close to 1 billion euros, which is very outrageous.
Although the club still has a large amount of cash and financial assets, short-term debt still affects the club's salary cap, causing Barcelona to now have to face a choice.
Messi, or someone else?
To keep Messi, the club will have to sell other people, or even many people; by selling Messi, the club can keep other people and at the same time get a lot of salary space for signings.
However, these things have nothing to do with Bartomeu's team.
One of the important reasons why Ponti, Grau and others proposed selling Messi is that Laporta, the most popular club candidate at present, has always played the Messi card. He has always been Messi.
supporters.
Another candidate Fonte's campaign slogan is to improve the club's finances. He is a successful business person. Many people's expectations for him are that he can become Barcelona's Florentino.
And Font’s special campaign aide was Harvey.
There is also a candidate, Fresa, who was originally a senior member of the club. Now he is running for office. He mainly plays the superstar card. For example, he will mention it in every external speech now. If he is elected as the president of Barcelona, he will fight against all opinions.
Sign Leeds United's number one superstar Haaland to play against Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe.
But he never explained where the huge sum of money needed to sign Haaland would come from?
Never believe what the opposition says.
This is a truth!
"I agree with your point of view."
Bartomeu sighed deeply, "But, Ponti, Grau, letting Maradona go is the biggest regret of former president Nunez."
From the current point of view, Messi may never win the World Cup and become the king of football, but he is undoubtedly the person closest to the king of football in world football after Maradona.
And he's from Barcelona.
Missing out on the ball title is Barcelona’s biggest regret.
Bartomeu doesn't want to carry the burden of [forcing Messi away].
In fact, looking at Laporta's current support rate, nearly 60% of Barcelona fans are supporting him. This shows that Messi's status in the hearts of Barcelona fans is still so respected.
Bartomeu will not bear this responsibility!
"Laporta had previously proposed in the board of directors to hire a professional financial officer to audit the club's financial situation, but he has temporarily suppressed it." Bartomeu suddenly changed the topic.
This made both Grau and Ponti stunned for a moment.
This is not a good talk about Messi, why did Laporta and the board of directors suddenly get involved...
Wait.
Grau and Ponti were neither idiots. They looked at each other and immediately noticed the other's sudden realization.
Isn’t it?
Bartomeu doesn't want to be the one to let Messi go, so who will be the unlucky guy?
Of course the next one!
But the question is, if Barcelona's financial affairs are audited now, can the blame be passed on to the next person?
"Gao! Ba Tuo, I understand!" Ponti laughed.
"Stop laughing." Bartomeu quickly stopped him, "Now we are 0 to 5 behind. If you are to be photographed, I can't protect you."
Ponti quickly fell silent.
Today's self-media, live broadcasts and media reporters are so powerful that they are almost pervasive.
God knows, that one sentence you said, that smiling face, suddenly something happened?
"Grau, please worry about this matter and delay it for another month. When the president is elected in March, we will hand over the person immediately and the rest will have nothing to do with us." Bartomeu warned.
He will even be the first to stand up and publicly question Laporta for ruining the club's financial situation.
What?
Debt?
Come on, so many clubs in Europe now, even clubs like Leeds United, are in debt.
The interest rates are too low. The bank is just giving you free money without any interest. Only fools would not lend money.
At that time, the team's large cash flow and financial assets will be Bartomeu's weapons to refute. As for the specific debts and players' salaries, can this be made clear?
Didn’t Laporta also say that he would renew his contract with Messi as soon as he was elected?
By then, will Laporta still have time and energy to pursue his ex?
…
When the Barcelona management was chatting about private topics in the stands, the game on the court reached the 63rd minute, and Leeds United once again completed the attack.
Sancho dribbled the ball horizontally and cut inside to the right rib, then passed it back to Valverde.
The Uruguayan midfielder then crossed the ball to Enzo Fernandez.
This made everyone think that Leeds United wanted to try to attack Barcelona's right wing, that is, Rashford's side.
Unexpectedly, when Enzo Fernandez stopped the ball, he faced the right side of the team. He paused for a moment, and when Achraf stepped in from the right, he suddenly made a long diagonal pass, which was accurately passed to the defender behind Barcelona's defense.
Right side of the penalty area.
Ashraf moved forward at the fastest speed, quickly got behind Alba, rushed into the right side of Barcelona's penalty area, caught up with Enzo Fernandez's long pass, and made a cross pass from the right side of the small penalty area.
The ball was passed crosswise along the line of the small penalty area to the center.
Lenglet fell to the ground and tried to make a sliding tackle, but failed to tackle the ball. Harland in the middle rushed to catch up and hit the target easily with his left foot.
“goallllllllllllllllll!!!!!”
"Harland, Harland again!!!"
"This is already his fifth goal!!!"
"Five sons passed the exam!"
"It was definitely a shocking game."
"We can see from the slow-motion replay that Leeds United's tactical coordination is very clever. Enzo Fernandez's long pass is very accurate, and Achraf's back-breaking is also quite threatening."
"Haaland calmly seized the opportunity and scored the fifth goal!"
"This is the third player in the history of the Champions League to score five goals in a single game in the knockout stages."
"The last person to perform in the knockout rounds of the Champions League and now he is in this stadium is Barcelona's Messi!"
"We don't know how Messi felt when he saw Haaland score the fifth goal at this moment, and Haaland scored the goal under Messi's nose.
into Barcelona’s goal.”
"But I believe that Messi must feel uncomfortable in his heart."
"This is Barcelona's Camp Nou, but tonight, it has completely become Leeds United's stage."
"In the stands, the Barcelona fans were booing crazily, but they didn't know whether they were booing their opponent Leeds United? Or were they booing their own players? Or who were they booing?"
"Six to zero, this is another big score."
"Barcelona really needs to reflect on it now. It is definitely problematic to suffer such disastrous defeats in the knockout rounds."
"We see that Leeds United seems to be planning to make substitutions, and the old captain Vardy is ready to play."
"But we also saw that Haaland was waving his hands vigorously towards the sidelines. It seemed that he had not had enough and wanted to stay on the court and continue to score goals."
"He seems to be planning to break Messi's record in front of Messi!"
