“Shameful.”
Barcelona fell victim to Bayern Munich’s relentless footballing machine on Friday night, suffering an 8-2 defeat in what Gerard Pique described as “rock bottom.”
Big changes are needed at every level of the club, from the boardroom to the bench. The next few weeks will make for a fascinating watch as Barcelona try to grapple with the worst crisis of this century.
The press were typically emotive in their analysis of the thrashing, with full justification. It wasn’t an off night for Barcelona, it was the result of years of boardroom neglect and an ageing squad not being able to compete with the truly elite.
Madrid based sports newspaper went with: “Vergüenza,” shame, in English, but more in the Game of Thrones sense than the “ah well,” sense. Disgraceful, basically.
Diario AS went with: “Humillación histórica,” no GCSE in Spanish to work that one out. And it was a historic humiliation, a result that was scar fans and players alike.
The Barcelona based paper, Mundo Deportivo, described it as the “end of a shameful cycle.”
The sidebars quote Gerard Piqué as saying “we’ve hit the bottom, I’ll be the first to go if I need to,” while the game is described as Bayern “giving a bath to Barcelona.”
Quique Setien is facing the sack, with a boardroom meeting being held on Monday to decide his fate.
Xavi Hernandez is favourite to take over, but Barcelona’s problems cannot be fixed by changing the manager. They run deep, and a huge squad overhaul is needed to prepare the club for Messi’s departure if they want to avoid a long, sustained period in the abyss.
