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02nd Sep 2017

The full extent of the mess at Barcelona laid bare by Spanish football expert Sid Lowe

Liverpool and Real Madrid fans might want to make a cup of tea and enjoy this. A club is disarray - and Messi could leave for free.

Nooruddean Choudry

What a complete mess.

Whilst other clubs may seem to be a perennial state of drama and distress *cough* Arsenal *cough*, no one can compare to FC Barcelona for sheer incompetence and disarray at present. To witness one of the greatest and most popular sporting institutes in the world, with the finest footballer of all time, in such chaos is half way between comedy and tragedy.

The constant string of false notes, mistaken hubris, failed negotiations and misguided decisions is seemingly non-stop, and so it’s sometimes difficult to keep up. But in an effort to lay out the full extent of mismanagement, and perhaps to take stock himself, one of the most revered and informed Spanish football experts out there has summed it up for us.

Sid Lowe is widely accepted as a reliable and trusted authority on all things La Liga, especially concerning Real Madrid and Barcelona. His book, Fear and Loathing in La Liga: Barcelona vs Real Madrid, is an exceptional work and thoroughly informative. Lowe is also part of the superb Spanish Football Podcast alongside housewives’ favourite Phil Kitromilides.

On Saturday, Lowe summed up the hot mess that is Barca in a collection of tweets that makes depressing and often farcical reading: