President Josep Maria Bartomeu's announcement of the resignation en bloc from his board of directors caught the staff in the middle of dinner in Turin. The players, who were summoned at 8:30 p.m. in the hotel dining room, they found out about the news that came from Barcelona via mobile. For many it was no surprise, because the club had long assumed that the resignation of the Blaugrana leader was the only way out of the institutional crisis in the club, but for others the departure of Bartomeu and his current board did cause a certain stupor.
In any case, the staff, in general lines, approved Bartomeu's decision: consider that from now on noise in the club, in the environment and in the media will be reduced, which since 2-8 against Bayern in the Champions League had become deafening against the current managers of the club, increasing if possible after the announcement of the vote of no confidence, endorsed by almost twenty thousand members.
Furthermore, the president's relationship with some of the team's top players was non-existent. In fact, Leo Messi and Bartomeu did not speak to each other for months, not even through messages on the mobile: the Blaugrana leader had sent one to the Blaugrana crack, who they had not been nor answered by the player. With Gerard Piqué, things were not going to fire rockets either, as evidenced in his interview in La Vanguardia last week, where he questioned Bartomeu's ignorance of the issue of 'Barçagate', And till Sergio Busquets, in a press conference with the national team, had recognized that if he had to explain everything that was happening in the club, he would need between “five to six hours”.
Obviously, for other players Bartomeu's departure has been a surprise. Frenkie de Jong, for example, had a very good relationship with the president, as well as Marc André Ter Stegen, although the latter found out about the leader's departure from his home in Barcelona.
Also now lThe squad is waiting to know how this new scenario will affect the negotiations that have started with the club on the salary reduction: after the resignation of the current board, the command will be assumed by a Management Board, which only has an administrative management capacity, according to the Statutes.