Gerard Pique, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets made into scapegoats

On Aug 19, 2020

PETE JENSON: Barcelona’s crisis has been put on the shoulders of Gerard Pique, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets after Josep Bartomeu’s comments – to scapegoat the legendary quartet is SHAMEFUL from the man who is largely to blame

Josep Bartomeu said it is time to send some players off with full honours
A number of Barcelona legends look set to leave after the loss to Bayern Munich
These include Gerard Pique, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets
List of players not available for transfer also raised eyebrows in some cases

Published: 18:21 EDT, 18 August 2020 | Updated: 21:02 EDT, 18 August 2020

So there we all were thinking Barcelona‘s current mess might be the fault of their incompetent board spending €250milllion (£225m) on Ousmane Dembele and Philippe Coutinho, sacking a coach in the middle of a season when they were top, allowing the club’s B-team to flounder in the third tier and overseeing an incomprehensible transfer policy since sacking the club’s last decent sporting director in 2015, but no we were wrong.

The problem is Gerard Pique, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets.

They are the ones who have to leave, not the president, who said it would have been ‘irresponsible’ to quit forcing the elections that almost all supporters of the club want.

Josep Bartomeu said it is time to say goodbye to players who made Barca the best in the world

His list of players who wouldn’t be sold did not include that of club legend Gerard Pique

Luis Suarez might also have to move to a new club as the club sets to enter a new era

Ronald Koeman is set to become the next manager after Barcelona’s 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich

Josep Bartomeu told the club’s in-house media: ‘Now it’s time to say goodbye to some of those players who have made us the best club in the world.

‘I don’t want to talk badly about anyone but we have to start sending some of them off with full honours.’

Full honours. That will be nice. Pique already has full honours of course. He has won everything possible in the game.

Suarez is the all-time third highest goalscorer in the club’s history and Sergio Busquets has been so good his position on the pitch now tends to carry his name.

It’s true that Busquets has wilted dramatically over the last 12 months and Suarez is the first to admit that he is in his final seasons and Pique said in his post-match interview after the Bayern debacle that he would go if people thought it best.

But to scapegoat them still seems pretty shameful. ‘This is not a social or an economic crisis it is a sporting one’, said the president pointing the finger clearly at the players.

Sergio Busquets is another experienced player who the club now look set to let go

Jordi Alba also might have played his final Barcelona game during the Champions League loss

‘There are certain players who know they are not going to continue. Give them free transfers? All the options…