Barcelona (AFP)

The clash will leave traces: Lionel Messi gave in and gave up leaving FC Barcelona but on Friday he expressed a bitterness which bodes badly for the coming season at the Catalan club.

The Argentine star repeated it clearly: he wanted to leave, a decision carefully considered, taken during "a very difficult year", well before the humiliation inflicted by Bayern Munich (2-8) in the Champions League, which had left the "Pulga" prostrate in the locker room.

This season, even before this rout, the Blaugrana had already returned the image of an aging, worn-out, unimaginative team with a coach, Quique Setien, overwhelmed by his locker room.

But Messi finally gave in: "impossible" to pay the clause of 700 million euros demanded by President Josep Maria Bartomeu to let him go;

and unthinkable to go "on trial against Barça", the club he "loves", the club "of (his) life".

- "No project" -

But the Argentinian did not hide his bitterness against Josep Maria Bartomeu who would have betrayed "a promise" to let him go if he wished.

And above all who, in his eyes, has "no plan", and whose only ambition is "to juggle and fill in the gaps".

And Lionel Messi worked to reassure the supporters: "My attitude is not going to change because I wanted to leave. I will give my best. I always want to win, I am a competitor and I hate to lose."

At 33, the "Pulga" have won 34 titles with Barcelona, ​​including ten La Liga and four Champions Leagues.

But this year has been atrocious, title-blank, a first since 2008.

What will be his relationship with the new coach Ronald Koeman, with whom, according to the Spanish press, the current has not passed and whom he accuses of having indicated the exit door to his friend, the Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez?

“Really now I don't know what's going to happen. There is a new coach and new ideas. That's good, but then you have to see how the team reacts and if it will be enough to be at the level, "said Lionel Messi.

- New blood -

In his interview, Lionel Messi insisted on the need to bring new blood into the workforce.

Certainly, FC Barcelona can feed the greatest hopes on the new nugget of its training center, Ansu Fati, who this week at 17 years old became the youngest Spanish international since 1936.

But despite his global popularity, due in large part to the aura of Lionel Messi, Barça deplores a fragile economic situation, and does not seem able to allow themselves follies on the transfer market.

FC Barcelona deplores a shortfall of EUR 200m since the pandemic and a net debt of nearly EUR 200m since 2019. It has taken out a loan of EUR 140m over five years from a American investment fund to help it pay off its debt.

Lionel Messi's about-face is not the first in his career.

In 2016, after his defeat in the Copa America final, two years after a similar setback for the world title, disgusted, he said goodbye to the Argentine selection, again full of bitterness ... before changing his mind two months later under popular pressure.

At Barça, he has already engaged in arm wrestling, eyeing Chelsea in 2015. But it was in the context of a salary renegotiation with the Catalans.

This time, the disenchantment between the player and his management seems more permanently installed.

The campaign for the election to the club's presidency in March 2021 promises to be tense.

© 2020 AFP