Another thing that has not been discussed in this thread is the amount of potential advertising and marketing money that will be lost if he's gone. Without Messi, we are basically a Sevilla/Valencia level team when it comes to attracting sponsors.
As I mentioned above, older players in this club makes us money.
We don't have the biggest wage bill in comparison to club income. Why? because those players play a huge role in our revenue.
Messi leads that by far, but others like Suarez/Busquets who are recognized names from golden era, and new big names like Griezmann are the reason for it.
The first real drama i recall was when Barto was accused of using i3 ventures in a campaign against certain key players. I can't remember Messi or Pique saying much about that tbh. The whole story around that was blurry. After that there was the huge rift with Abidal after he called out the players for not working hard enough. That caused a HUGE backlash especially with the seniors. Around that time Valverde got dismissed aswell and that didn't sit well with them. That's when the board started to rock the boat.
This is the answer.
there was problems, but it is another thing when you take it to the public.
Hot take: With most amigos out and squad being rejuvenated with a few signings, we will do much better than everyone expects. Each player will be fighting for their spot, pressing, and running at least 10 km a match. We will fight madrid until last match day and will go out in QF of CL by only a goal or two margin.
Koeman is a decent coach, but he is also not a great one.
It is very rare nowadays that a coach suddenly reaches the level for top clubs at late 50's.
He will be without our top 2 scorers, one of them is our greatest passer too.
The new wave of players are either too young, or questionable.
More important, team will still lack a lot of needed qualities. No explosive wingers, no quick CB, no spoiler in midfield. Questionable full backs too. Doubt most of those will be addressed in this transfer market.
