Barcelona was once one of the best clubs in the world.Under Pep Guardiola they reigned supreme and quickly established themselves as one of the greatest sides we've ever seen - that's alongside the illustrious Johan Cruyff and his squad of the early 90s. However, the start to the new decade hasn't been kind for Barca.Being knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Champions League is never good for the Catalan giants, but to lose 8-2 to Bayern Munich is more than embarrassing.Lionel Messi's work rate exemplified Mesut Ozil and his captaincy skills left a lot to be desired. He lost the ball countless times but not once did he try to win it back.You can forgive Messi, though. He is a player who has carried Barcelona - without him, they'd be a lot worse off.
And that's what makes his potential departure so tricky. Although Messi is now 33, he is still one of the greatest to play the game.Yet, he probably deserves to leave. After all, his club are in a gigantic mess, as it has been for most of 2020.A Twitter thread from journalist Samuel Marsden emerged back in April which detailed their 'banter' year so far.Now more than ever, it feels timely to bring it up, especially after Marsden added to it following their battering against Bayern.
Their loss versus the Bundesliga winners may have been humiliating, but one can argue that something like this has been building for months.
Let's start with what happened at the beginning of the year...
What a baffling start for Barcelona. Not only did they drop points against Espanyol, who finished rock bottom of La Liga, but they appointed a manager in Quique Setien who clearly wasn't qualified for a job as big as Barca.
He failed to win a single trophy and is now on the verge of being replaced by Ronald Koeman.
Somehow, the injury issue to Suarez was the least of their concerns.
Requiring stoppage time against Ibiza, a part of the world more known for its parties, was also rather embarrassing.
As it happens, this was only the beginning of a colossal couple of months for Barca.
Abidal's comments blaming the players was utterly bizarre. He was an ex-pro for Barcelona himself but found himself outing those on the pitch, rather than himself and club president Josep Maria Bartomeu.
This was where Messi truly began to lose his patience.
If anything summed up 2020 for Barca, it was signing someone who flopped with Middlesbrough in the Championship.
Finally some good press. Barca's players decided to take a 70% wage deferral with the club facing cuts after the Coronavirus hit Spain.
Just as that happened, however, a scandal rocked Barcelona. If someone was really taking money out of the club, it summed up the shambolic state of the way things were being run.
Incredibly, with football returning, things became worse. Messi had to deny a rumour on social media that he was moving to Inter Milan, but that hasn't stopped reports of a move away.
He and Luis Suarez could both depart, following the sacked Setien out the door. If that wasn't bad enough, Bartomeu is under pressure to bring the club presidency elections forward.
Clearly, it doesn't look like he'll last too long either.
For everyone at the Nou Camp, that should be a good thing. What a whirlwind eight months.