But saying we're done forever or that everyone are bad and doomed is a bit OTT in my opinion.
My Titanic posts are not about the eternal fail. But as things stands, we will get nowhere near the level of let's say Rijkaard's Barca (which was a few levels below Pep and everything after 2008) for at least 10 years.
Also, what annoys me or baffles me are fans who are taking it for granted that we will come back on top because we are Barca.
As if this is some movie or a video game where Barca is a default Tier1 team in football and whatever happens, we stay on that level.
In the last 30-ish years, I have seen a lot of big clubs who were as big as we are today who failed and haven't returned for decades or more.
A few examples:
1. AC Milan, the biggest European team of 80s and 90s.
Check the key points:
-- they were rulling the world in the late 80s and 90s WHILE Italy was the richest league in the world.
They had money, all the best players played there, all the best coaches were there.
It was like a snowball effect. They were strong, the opponents were strong, stadiums were filled, the whole world watched their games every Sunday, sponsors were throwing millions, everyone wanted to sign for Milan, Juve, Inter, Roma or Lazio.
-- but when Seria A bankrupted in early 2000s, and when Calciopoli scandal happened, they had another snowball effect, but this time a negative one:
Sponsors left them big players left for Real/Barca/England. All new kids from then on signed for Barca/Real or EPL teams.
Their big teams turned into crap, their whole league turned into crap, sponsors left and they fell into a vicious circle of no good players, no good coaches, no good teams and no money.
Even their best and the richest team, Juve is a crap in Europe since then (zero titles) and AC Milan iirc won 1 league title in the last 17 years.
2. Liverpool, the best EPL team before 90s. From 1977 to 1985 they won 4 CLs and lost 1 final. That is comparable to Barca's current situation.
From 1976 to 1990, they won 4 Cls and 10 EPL titles.
And then, since 1990 to 2020 they had 30 years without EPL title.
3. Arsenal, who was probably in top 4-5 teams in Europe in the late 90s and early 00s with Henry, Bergkamp, Overmars, Vieira, Ljungberg and Wenger.
From 1998 to 2005, they had 8 consecutive Top2 finishes in EPL with 3 titles.
After 2005, they have zero titles and only one 2nd place in 17 years.
4. Even Man Utd, who had 13 EPL titles in 21 years up to 2013.
After SAF and after they lost the golden generation and after they weren't the richest team in EPL anymore, this season will be their 9th in a row without a title.
So, from:
13 EPls and 4 CL finals in 21 years under SAF, to 0 EPLs and 0 Cls in the last 9 years.
Interesting, isn't it?
5. Lyon wasn't a European force, but they had 7 French titles in a row in early 2000s.
And they beat Real several times in a row in a round of 16 of CL.
They more or less disappeared after that.
Now, the thing which reapeats in all of these examples:
All of these teams were on top when they had some combo consisted of:
1) top coach
2) golden generation
3) being filthy rich and buying all the international superstars (Milan, Man Utd, Arsenal)
But when the money dried and the golden generation left, they fell into a decade of mediocrity.
Now, my question is: why do people think that this isn't (or won't) happen to Barca?
Imo, our situation is the closest to what happened to AC Milan.
Seria A bankrupted around 2005, and the same is happening to La Liga currently.
In 2005, La Liga and EPL took the first place from Seria A.
And today, La Liga is losing it's position to EPL (and we are miles behind), and also we aren't much better or richer than Bundesliga or revieved Seria A.
Let's go further:
We lost golden boys Messi, Cr7 and Neymar who brought quality, sponsors, status and fans to La Liga.
Kids are fickle. They followed Barca because we were winning and we had Messi. They will soon jump to another popular ship called Psg, City or Liverpool.
Kids won't buy jerseys of Fati, Olmo or Torres.
Further, without money, we will lose our youth players.
We will also lose superstar players.
We won't be able to sign new superstars except Spanish, Catalan and Brazilian players who are historically connected with Spain.
But even now, we'll lose on Brazilians if we don't have money.
Further, coaches?
Who would come to Barca when all the fun is in EPL?
Pep, Klopp, Tuchel, everyone are there.
Further, sponsors will leave.
Without Messi, Cr7 or Neymar, tv rights will be lower.
Except hardcore fans, no one cares about Gavi, Nico or Fati.
Without money, even smaller teams will suck even more.
And with weak opponents, we will suffer even more.
On top of everything, we don't have any money.
On top of that, Barca is historically one of the most emotional, messed and impulsive clubs in the world.
If more stable and logical clubs like Ajax, Milan, Liverpool, Man Utd declined, why on Earth are you guys sure that this ticking bomb of a club will suddenly make the right moves and go back to the tier1 of European football?
Our sporting directors are bad, our president is lost, our former president should be in jail, our coaches are bad, all of our coaches need to have Barca DNA, La Masia is messed up with Barca DNA influences, a lack of physique, a lack of fighting spirit, a lack of shooting etc.
Then there is an eternal problem of: where do we go? Should we move on or run in circles looking for Pep's era replica?
And even worse, Barca/Catalonia has political battle against Spain, so our emotions and judgement is cloud even more because they are buying tons of Catalan players for political reasons. This could also be a reason why Pique, Roberto and Busi are still leaders.
And even worse, we have Covid who might stay here for years and ruin matches and economy.
Since we are already in debts, and if Covid stays for years, how will we get out of debts?
My Titanic posts are trolling to some extent, but there is a lot of truth in it.
When you sum everything, chances are not in our favor.
If I would need to put money on some options, I would say:
90% surely nothing will change in the short term future, like in 3 years. We will be as bad as today or possibly even worse with each new year.
For a 5 years period, maybe something will improve, but I would still say: 75% that we will be more or less as bad as today.
Only for a longer period, like 10 years, there is some hope, let's say: 50:50 that we might slowly go up and improve, ONLY if we'll somehow again have millions of money to spend.
Btw, I am not saying that Barca won't win La Liga here and there.
I am talking about the level which we are used to: let's say Rijkaard's Barca or Barca from the čast decade when we were the best team in Europe or one of top 4-5 teams.
We will get nowhere near top5 in europe in the next 5 years.
People often said: I want my Barca back.
Imo, your Barca is not coming back for at least the next 5 years.
And more likely, not in this decade.
Btw, regarding Neymar's 222m sale and buying Dembele, Coutinho, Griezmann, this is not the first time in our history.
In 2001, we sold Figo to RM for 60M, which was something like 130-150m today.
And look at our erratic and impulsive transfers back then:
https://www.transfermarkt.com/fc-barcelona/startseite/verein/131/saison_id/2000
https://www.transfermarkt.com/fc-barcelona/transferrekorde/verein/131/plus/0/galerie/0?saison_id=2001&pos=&detailpos=&altersklasse=&w_s=
We spent 85m in 2001 and 100m in 2002.
Which is something like 400-500m today.
For all that money, we didn't buy a single guy who turned out to be a good player for us.
But back then we were filthy rich, and we scored a gold with Ronaldinho, plus we had a Golden generation of Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, Messi.
Today, our club is still erratic, we are even bigger mess, La Liga is falling down, EPL and oil money are rulling the world, Covid is killing our finances (except with oil clubs), there is no Messi, young players are meh for 10 years.
So, when you sum it all, I still don't get how people are still so convinced that we will come back soon.
Again, imo, far likelier scenario is us being Spanish AC Milan or Arsenal in the next 5 years.
