Former Barca Midfielder Sheds Light On Barcelona Without Messi

Xavi’s side came in the top 4 since September after defeating Atletico Madrid

Messi left Barcelona for PSG after 18 long years last summer. After the magician’s departure from the club, Barca has been struggling a lot. The super giants are going through a transition under the newly appointed head coach Xavi Hernandez, who is trying to introduce a new style of play with new signings.

As the club sets sights on Champions League qualification, former Barcelona midfielder and LaLiga Ambassador Gaizka Mendieta believes they have gone through a few changes during the pandemic.

La Masia has been an instrumental factor in Barcelona's success and the academy has produced world-class gems including Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi. Mendieta shed light on the transition and opined whether the club can go back to its academy in the grand scheme of things.

“We saw Barca at some point selling young players, which is not the case. They will normally use older mature young players, and then sign currents somewhere else to kind of get the balance right, in a dumb point in a way they were like buying way too many players and not really looking down the academy the reasons why I think that kind of went through a few changes.

So we were kind of not so much looked into it as probably they should have. I think now that you say that they're starting to look more into the team maybe," said Mendieta.

"Maybe also because of the situation in the club, so they were forced on also nothing not only Barca because the pandemic made a lot of the clubs to have done in the lost time the academy and develop and invest more, rather than going in marketing buy because of the financial situation as well, which has been great.

I think, especially for Barca, we see so many challenges, Pedri, Gavi, Ansu Fati, I think there's a future I mean, guess there's so much talent in the team in the academy too, to now bring you into the team," he added.