Lionel Messi Is Angry In The Wake Of The Club’s Champions League Defeat To Bayern Munich.
Messi’s anger hit a new low on Friday, when Bayern subjected Barcelona to a Champions League demolition job.
If Barcelona want to appease Lionel Messi after their Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich, selling Luis Suarez won’t do the trick. The Uruguay international has been the 33-year-old’s partner in crime ever since his arrival from Liverpool in 2014. But, with Barcelona keen to rebuild, Suarez may be cut loose.
Few gave Barcelona a chance of beating Bayern Munich when the teams locked horns in their Champions League clash last Friday.
But nobody could have foreseen the mauling that took place at the Estadio Da Luz Stadium.
Bayern were simply too good and too strong. They produced an attacking performance full of intent, one that Barcelona couldn’t do anything about.
Bayern won 8-2, booking their place in the Champions League semi-finals in the process. Philippe Coutinho and Thomas Muller both bagged braces, while Ivan Perisic, Serge Gnabry, Robert Lewandowski and Joshua Kimmich also found the net.
Now, understandably, Messi is angry.
The defeat in Portugal compounded a nightmare season for both the Barcelona star and his team-mates, one that started so full of promise.
Having signed Antoine Griezmann from Atletico Madrid in last summer’s transfer window, and with Real Madrid still reeling from the loss of Cristiano Ronaldo in 2018, everybody expected another terrific campaign.
However, over the course of the season, Barcelona’s season has hit increasingly new lows.
Messi was angry from the get go. He never wanted Griezmann, despite the France international being regarded as one of the best players on the planet.
Instead he felt the Catalan giants should have paid whatever it takes to bring Neymar back to the club, three years after the forward’s controversial move to the Parc des Princes.
For a while, Barcelona plodded along.
But it was a defeat to Atletico Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup that saw Ernesto Valverde’s head roll, with the Spaniard paying the price for standards slipping.
Messi actually didn’t want Valverde to go. And, when Eric Abidal blamed the players for Valverde losing his job, he snapped.
“Honestly, I don’t like doing these things but I think that everyone has to be responsible for his acts and take responsibility for their own decisions,” Messi wrote on his Instagram page.
“The players [are responsible for] what happens on the pitch, and we have been the first to recognise when we were not good.
“The people in the sporting directorate should also assume their responsibility and above all take ownership of the decisions they make.
“Finally, I think that when players are talked about, names should be given because, if not, we are all being dirtied and it feeds comments that are made and are not true.”
And, now, things could get even worse.
Reports have suggested that Barcelona are ready to offload Suarez if a suitable offer arrives, believing the 33-year-old to be past his best.
But Messi would prefer for him to stay.
Suarez arrived from Liverpool in the summer transfer window of 2014 but with a ban hanging over his head, having bitten Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup in Brazil.
Barcelona had to wait. But Suarez proved to be worth the wait, shining alongside both Messi and Neymar as the club won the Champions League under Luis Enrique.
Over the years, Suarez has become the dream Messi partner in crime.
And he’s seldom let the club down. He’s scored 168 goals for Barcelona since his move with only Messi managing more in the club’s entire history.
Now, however, Messi could be about to lose his closest dressing room ally. The pair are so well-connected they even holiday together with their families, often sharing images on social media.
And that definitely won’t sit well with the 33-year-old.