Over the last few days, reports in Spain have focused around tension between senior players and management of FC Barcelona, with management being frustrated by the entitled attitudes of the players and players being frustrated by management hiring a bad manager and improperly allocating their money. 

While an ugly end to last season surely must have frustrated management, such reports highlight the dysfunction of the club. However, given the last few years, it is somewhat surprising that such a dispute did not happen earlier, especially considering some of the countless woeful decisions made by the club’s management regarding the acquisition of players to fill the field around their stars. 

Perhaps the only reason for this anger is also likely the biggest victim of the mismanagement of the team: star Lionel Messi, the greatest player of this generation.

Over the last few years, Messi has been able to cover up many of the team’s cracks, whether it be poor signings, a lazy and consistently passive manager or the declining form of former stars the club has tried to pair alongside Messi. His individual brilliance has allowed Barcelona to win the past two league titles and four of the last five campaigns. 

Despite his ability, Messi has not been able to match his league performance in knockout competitions, winning just one Champions League title since 2011 despite being the best player in the world during that time. Never was this prowess more evident than this past season, when Messi was the top scorer in the competition and the knockout stages and led Barcelona to the semifinals. Despite Messi scoring two goals and creating several clear chances, they blew a 3-0 lead in their 4-0 return leg defeat at Anfield. This failure is where the task is on the club to surround Messi with a better supporting cast and a better manager. 

Over 38 games, Messi has been able to prove his greatness more often than not, leading Barcelona to consistently find itself at or near the top of La Liga, but in knockout competitions, the margin for error decreases and even the best player in the world may not be enough. The unfortunate paradox is that Messi’s brilliance over the rest of the season makes the other issues at the club seem less prevalent and glaring at the moment. 

However, the surrounding issues certainly do exist and have reared their heads at the most inopportune times in recent seasons. Most notably, Barcelona has continued to support manager Ernesto Valverde despite blowing three-goal leads in consecutive Champions Leagues. 

In addition, striker Luis Suarez continues to be an undisputed starter despite only scoring five goals in his last 30 Champions League games and not scoring an away goal since 2015. 

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the club does not seem to have a clear transfer direction, as proven by their willingness to invest over $250 million on Ousmane Dembele and Philippe Coutinho, only to almost never even play them together on the pitch. 

Critics of Messi and Barcelona have used their transfer spending as an argument against Messi and other Barcelona stars, but the reality is that high transfer spending is usually caused by flaws and dysfunction within the squad. 

Two of the most successful teams in recent years, especially in the Champions League, Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona and Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid, were not spending a lot each summer the way Barcelona is now. Both sides had well-balanced teams and, consequently, were able to use this frugality as an advantage to gain stability — something Barcelona has been missing for at least the past five seasons.

Regardless of what happens for the rest of Messi’s career, he will still be considered the best player ever by most. However, Barcelona is wasting the opportunity to maximize trophy output with Messi and must do more to make the most out of the 32-year-old’s final seasons at the club.