Insult to injury for the Catalan giants
Barcelona made a holy show of themselves on Friday night, when they were ruthlessly sliced apart by Bayern Munich in their one-off Champions League quarter-final in Lisbon.
On the bench from the start sat Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele - two of their three most expensive signings - while the most expensive, Philippe Coutinho, sat on the opposition bench.
The Brazilian playmaker came onto the pitch with his side already possessing an insurmountable lead, and poured salt in the wounds of his parent club with two late goals.
Well, it could be about to get worse. Because if Coutinho wins the Champions League with Bayern, then Barca will be obligated to pay Liverpool a fee, as part of the £140 million which took him from Anfield.
https://twitter.com/FootballJOE/status/1294380345178181639?s=20
There were a number of clauses inserted into that deal, and one stipulates that Barca will have to pay Liverpool £4.5 million should Coutinho win the Champions League while contracted to Barcelona.
That leaves the Catalan club facing the grim prospect of rewarding Liverpool for the fact that one of their own players eliminated them from Europe.
It has been a tremendously shitty season for the LaLiga club, and last night only added to the mess. What awaits them now is a period of serious introspection regarding the future direction of the club. Either that, or they'll just splurge hundreds of millions again. At this stage, it's hard to tell which way it'll go.
