Pranish Bista
Lionel Messi is one of the greatest football players if not the greatest player ever to have graced the pitch. The numbers the Argentine has produced over the years is absolutely staggering. He has scored 672 goals in 778 appearances for Barcelona which are both club records and has broken countless records throughout his Barcelona career. So, it isn’t the biggest hot take to say direct replacing Messi is almost impossible. So today we take a look at how Barcelona might do without their greatest ever player following his move to Paris Saint German.
Even with their Catastrophic off the pitch activities leaving the club in a financial crisis which led to the sale of Messi, Barcelona still some pretty promising core group of young players around whom the next potentially great Barcelona should be built on. The La Maisa academy has been home to many breathe taking footballers like Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, Fabregas and even Pep Guardiola to name a few and there might be a new star in the making in the name of Anshu Fati. Fati really impressed the Catalan faithful with his cuts inside the box, quick short passes and his finishing considering he made his debut age 16. Fati looked destined for a sublime season with 5 goals in the 10 games he featured for Barcelona before he tore his meniscus on his left knee in 7 November ending his season early.
So, Barcelona have high hopes he returns with all guns blazing heading into the new season. With Fati out for majority of last season Barcelona had a new youngster leaving everyone in awe of him in the form of Pedri. The Spaniard who was signed from Las Palmas for a fee of 5 million Euros already looks an absolute steal from the Blaugrana. Pedri was absolutely phenomenal last season with him featuring 52 times despite only being 18 shows how important he was for one of the biggest clubs in the world. Pedri just didn’t amaze everyone in club football as he was the catalyst for Spain reaching both the Euros semifinal and the Olympic Football Final bagging the young Player of the year in the Euros. Frankie De Jong is also a player Barcelona have huge expectations for the future. The Ajax academy is expected to replace legendary midfielder Sergio Busquets when he eventually retires.
But it isn’t all Rosey for the Catalan giants as the club still has huge gaping holes in the squad. They have given massive wages to so many underwhelming players like Umtiti, Coutinho, Pjanic and Braithwaite which makes them really difficult to move on as smaller clubs in which the players deserve to play cannot afford them. Barcelona also has their previously reliable players like Ter-Stegen, Busquets, Griezmann and Gerrard Pique all underperforming relative to their high wages and the high standards they have previously set. Barcelona also consistently over-pay huge amount of transfer fees for players who probably aren’t worth the money leaving the player in an enormous pressure to perform immediately which eventually makes them crumble.
All in all, Post Messi Barcelona look all set for quite a difficult campaign with a lot of dead wood players very difficult to get rid of but they do have a few gems around whom the team should be built on. So, sniping up more low-cost talent youngsters like Pedri is definitely the right path to reach the pinnacle of world football again
