It’s certainly been a tension-filled Barcelona the past 24 hours despite the expectation that Lionel Messi’s arrival was going to be anything but smooth.
The glimmer of hope now is that Joan Laporta’s management of the club’s financial situation and the juggling of the wage bill would generate hope in ameliorating the situation.
The latest reports according to Guillem Balague are that the situation has now become complicated, as Messi is on the verge of making a decision about his future and it will not favor Barcelona despite the World Cup winner really eager to return home and was willing to help as much as possible to pioneer the operation.
However, Barcelona have yet to send an official proposal to his entourage and the seasoned journalist further adds that if the Argentine does not return to Camp Nou, the accountability will be on the club and not La Liga as the Blaugranas had clearly prioritized operation to sign the former captain even in June. Such is their eagerness (desperation?) that they are actually even considering a pact with David Beckham’s Inter Miami that would include a six to eighteen-month loan of Messi to Spain.
The good news is that the club believe that they have sufficient margin to sign the Argentine on a free transfer and accommodate his wages, so much so that they even sent their economic feasibility plan to La Liga earlier this month in hope of a prompt response.
LaLiga, however, have not been prompt in responding and it’s only after weeks of patient waiting that Barcelona were informed of a ‘suspicious’ transaction of €40 million that required justification. All it took was just one meeting between the two parties to iron out the confusion, which makes one wonder what took La Liga so long to administer over a simple formality.
In an endeavor to avoid missing out on their top target, Barcelona sent Messi an unofficial offer worth €25 million. The player has given the club ten days to put an official offer on the table, and the Catalans are now racing against the clock to receive La Liga’s approval.
So far there is still no clarity regarding the PSG star’s future as things stand, except for the fact that Barcelona seem to be falling behind in their pursuit.
Obviously the Al-Hilal and Inter Miami options are still on his table, and although the former is economically far more lucrative, Messi is understandably harboring clear doubts about the sporting level in the Saudi side of things.