Thread by @EiFSoccer

Josep Maria Bartomeu - the disastrous situation he engineered at Barcelona, a thread:

Let us preface this thread with a disclaimer - there’s so much that surely happened behind the scenes that we’re missing here. We’ll try to cover as many poor decisions that we are publicly aware of in chronological order.

Barcelona’s net spend from 13/14 to 21/22 was 555M. This is all irrespective of the ludicrous contracts that were given to players that are currently crippling their wage bill (Coutinho, Umtiti, Griezmann, Pjanic, the list goes on…)

Truly criminal stuff from Bartomeu.

Many of the players we’ll reference below could have easily not been signed as they ended up being expensive bench fodders.

La Masia has and always will be a world class talent machine - trust in your youth to deliver.

13/14: Bartomeu was appointed January 2014 after Rosell resigned given the scandal involving Neymar’s signing to Barcelona (tax fraud). Do not absolve Bartomeu here - he was involved in the process of signing Neymar with Rosell.

In the summer of 2014 (to his credit), he made some great signings (Rakitic, Suarez, MATS, Bravo) and appointed Luis Enrique, a club legend that helped them win a treble. This helped his candidacy going into the 2014-15 elections (beat Laporta by a lot).

But, that summer wasn’t perfect - Barcelona overspent on two old defenders (Mathieu 20M and Vermaelen 19M). They also brought in Douglas who occupied a non-EU position and made virtually 0 contributions to the team.

14/15: At the hands of the best attacking trio in footballing history (MSN), Barcelona won the treble. Nonetheless, this season had already started to reveal Bartomeu’s true colors.

Zubizarreta was fired from his position as a director. Puyol resigned in solidarity. The Board and Zubi put themselves into a difficult position signing multiple U-18 players in 2009-2013 (leading to a two window transfer ban).

15/16: Barcelona were not able to sign and register players until the winter of 2016 - this did not stop Bartomeu from splashing big money without a clear sporting project in mind.

Barca bought Turan for 41M - he wasn’t able to get game rhythm due to being sidelined from the ban. Aleix Vidal went for 22M, suffering a similar sideline issue as Turan.

Neither ever got their footing right and didn’t contribute (notably Turan).

16/17: Issues start to pile in. Dani Alves leaves on a free, stating multiple times that he had issues with Bartomeu. He became an instrumental piece in the Juventus team that knocked Barca out of the Champions League.

Bartomeu’s irresponsible spending continued with a whopping 55M on the bang average Andre Gomes, 32M on backup striker Paco Alcacer, 21M on backup LB Digne (Grimaldo was at the club), and 15M on backup GK Cillessen.

17/18: The season in which many Barcelona fans undeniably lost faith in Bartomeu. Valverde was appointed as the new manager - a less than inspiring choice that never fit the Barcelona ideology or style of play.

Neymar shockingly leaves Barcelona and Bartomeu panic reacts throughout the season with irresponsible spending (once again). A young, slightly raw yet clearly talented Ousmane went for up to 135M (is that the best way to spend most of your Neymar money?)

Spending wasn’t over. 40M went to the aging CM Paulinho, 30M on a 3rd RB at the club (Semedo), 5M on Marlon, 12M on Deulofeu, 12M on backup CB Yerry Mina, and the whopping 160M for Coutinho.

Bartomeu so desperately tried to fill the Neymar void by spending egregious amounts on players in positions where kids from the academy could have done their job (selling Tello for 4M, Munir out on loan, Deulofeu out on loan again).

17/18 summer signings were made with little to no thought. There was no clear sporting plan - the game was to buy big names just to buy names.

Didn’t matter if they worked for the system they were trying to implement - part of the reason why the disaster in Rome happened.

18/19: Next summer wait for it..Valverde is still in charge and yes! More spending!

Barcelona fans were divided on whether or not to give Valverde a second chance. The 17/18 hand he was dealt was difficult mainly because of the Board’s disastrous planning.

Aging Arturo Vidal for 18M, Lenglet for 36M, Malcom for 41M (still trying to fill that Neymar void), Arthur for 31M, Boateng for no reason, Murillo for no reason, and Todibo (who barely ever played).

Can’t forget the bizarre Paulinho transaction back to China in which Bartomeu murkily moved around money to favor Barcelona.

This had shady written all over the transaction.

On the pitch, this was the year Valverde led this team to the famous night at Anfield - corner taken quickly and STILL, Valverde kept his job.

Fans were furious and there was so much toxicity - it would have been better had he been sacked then and there.

19/20: Surprise, surprise, another WILD Barcelona summer. Shady Neto/Cillessen swap where Barcelona paid 26M for a backup GK who got a huge pay raise at Barcelona.

FDJ for 88M was the only great move made this summer (still an INSANE AMOUNT OF MONEY!!!)

18M for backup LB Firpo, 12M for Emerson, 120M (and insane contract) for Griezmann who struggled from day 1 fitting into the system, and Braithwaite for 18M. Valverde was sacked mid season and Setien replaced him.

Barcelona had one of its worst run of games with Setien, who clearly lost the locker room. They got thoroughly embarrassed by Bayern in the Champions League (8-2) and lost La Liga.

During the COVID outbreak, Barcelona players agreed to a 70% pay cut in order to help fund non-sporting staff and non-player salaries. The financial damage of successive summers of irresponsible spending started to have its toll.

All of this happened while Barcagate was uncovered in February of 2020 - when Bartomeu allegedly outsourced social media campaigns well above market rates (fraud suspicion) in order to anonymously slander Laporta, Messi, Piqué, and other Barcelona players.

20/21: spending didn’t stop! The only real, good business was Pedri for 5M and Dest for 21M. Messi reluctantly stayed at Barcelona after having a large dispute over legal technicalities with Bartomeu.

Setien was fired and Koeman was appointed as the manager.

They signed Pjanic for 60M with an absurdly high wage (the very shady Juventus exchange for Arthur), Trincão for 31M and Fernandes (who did absolutely nothing) for 7M.

Despite known issues from the pandemic, they still spent money.

To add salt to the wound, they let legend Luis Suarez leave to league rivals Atletico for 6M (less than Fernandes’ fee), where he helped lead them to a La Liga title.

It’s a long, long thread of the continuous irresponsible, detrimental behavior that crushed the team from both a sporting perspective and financial perspective.

Bartomeu truly is as horrible of a President as it gets. Most likely the worst President in football history.