Guillem Balague: Barcelona on brink of history but change necessary for Messi & Co

After a season that has seen them stroll to the eighth league and cup double in their history it seems almost churlish to suggest that things are not as rosy for Barcelona as perhaps they might be.

Four more league games, including the small matter of a Clasico against Real Madrid this weekend and if they can remain unbeaten they will be the first Spanish side since Real Madrid in 1932 – those days just known as Madrid – to go the whole season unbeaten.

At the time of writing it is not certain whether or not Real will welcome the new champions onto the Camp Nou pitch with a guard of honour. Or let me put it another way – it will not happen but it will be debated till the last minute.

What is beyond doubt is that they will be doing their level best not to give the Catalans an assist into the record pages of La Liga’s footballing history.

READ MORE: Iniesta confirms he will leave Barcelona after 22 years

READ MORE: Guardiola ‘eyeing a reunion with Barcelona star Iniesta at Manchester City’

READ MORE: Martial to choose between ‘Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Juventus’

If Barcelona feel they have a date with destiny they are going to have to get there by brushing aside the very best efforts of their most deadly rival.

So apart from that little ‘blip’ that was the Champions League quarter final second leg against Roma, then the future’s bright – isn’t it?

Er…no actually it isn’t.

There are a lot of decisions to be made despite the fact that there is still a whole lot of quality in the Barcelona side.

Of course, the main problems are that it is very much an ageing quantity and that this is a side that needs to lose about a third of its squad and then strengthen.

Pique, Alba, Messi and Busquets are all magnificent players and all former graduates of the much-vaunted La Masia Academy. Unfortunately they are also all either nudging on, in, or over, the dreaded 30, which would be fine if there were any number of players waiting in the wings ready to pick up when they leave.

There aren’t. Carles Aleñá will be a full first team player next season, a typical La Masia midfielder who will be international quality if he continues his progression. More of a Rakitic that an Iniesta, he has quality in the pass, power in his runs and scores from midfield.

That will be next season. The squad that celebrated the title-winning game at Deportivo on Sunday did not contain a single ‘new’ graduate from the Academy and things could get much worse.

Barcelona B are drifting ever closer to relegation from the Segunda A into Spanish football’s third tier, the Segunda B. The plan this season was to create a squad strong enough to stay in the second division, with a mixture of players signed from other clubs who have experience at this level and some of the best under 18s around. But neither have shown to be good enough to stay in the upper parts of the table.

This season Messi has scored more than 40 goals in all competitions for the seventh year running and has along with Ter Stegen at the other end been the main reason they have remained unbeaten in the league.

This is a Barcelona side that relies on Messi especially, more and more each season.

He signed an extension to his contract on the proviso that this was a Barcelona that would strengthen its ranks but as the single most famous product ever to come out of the Academy he will know better than most that this is something that will be easier said than done.

Among the players that have to be jettisoned are Arda Turan, currently on loan at Basaksehir in Turkey, Rafinha who does not want to come home from Inter and Deulofeu who may well want to come back to Barcelona from Watford, except that Barcelona don’t particularly want him back.

Semedo might be sold sold as will Andre Gomes, Aleix Vidal, Digne and Alcacer and in their place new players need to be brought in. Currently the only ‘plan B’ at right back is Sergi Roberto and that needs to be addressed.

There has been talk that among those leaving would be Umtiti and Manchester United seemed prepared to meet his buyout clause but since the Roma defeat he seems to have tempered his demand for a increase of three times his wage for something slightly more realistic. Clement Lenglet currently of Sevilla, could well be a replacement for him should Umtiti go.

But it is in midfield, and also up front where they probably face their biggest dilemmas.

Luis Suarez has had an on-off campaign and much of the talk is of Antoine Griezmann coming to the Camp Nou. Griezmann can fill the goalscoring brief along with Coutinho but it is midfielders they will need with the Brazilian, Arthur due to arrive from Gremio at the start of next year – or the summer if Barcelona think he is an immediate solution.

But coming before January 2019 would cost Barcelona more money and at the moment they are for a variety of reasons concerned about counting the pennies and would be reluctant to shell out even more for the player that some people are already beginning to have doubts about even before he has arrived.

Busquets seems to get better and better in that most important midfield holding role, but he surely can’t go on for ever, and most worryingly there doesn’t seem to be anyone ready to take over from him, nor – Rodri apart, who is going to Atletico – remotely in the same class as him and available to buy.

Barcelona are also now heavily committed to the new Espai Barcelona which will see the club and its facilities converted into one of the most advanced state of the art sporting complexes in the world with a renovated stadium, brand new reserve team ground to be name the Johan Cruyff stadium, a brand new arena for its indoor sports teams like Basketball and Handball team and a brand new Barcelona Campus.

This involves a massive investment and is certainly taking a very high priority in the thinking of everyone at the club.

When it is finally built it will further establish the name and prestige of arguably the most well-known club in the universe and that is something that will always encourage top players to sign for them.

But until then – and probably for some time after it is built – it will mean that this is a Barcelona side that will not have the financial wherewithal of clubs like the two Manchester or PSG to ensure getting the very, very best that command the very highest of prices.

In a perfect world there would now be a queue of young, hungry, indecently-talented and magnificently-schooled protegees ready and waiting to attempt to fill the ample boots about to be vacated by the legend that is Andres Iniesta.

Iniesta said as much as he announced his farewell and the fact that there aren’t beyond Aleñá should be of a huge concern to the club.