But wouldn't he have commanded a similar salary elsewhere and had much the same effect? And how many billions has he earned Barcelona over his years there, in club-specific TV rights, gate receipts, merchandise, replica shirts, prize money and so on?
I think it's far more the case that the club has been badly mismanaged in recent years, per that article I posted yesterday (quote below). Never mind the mind-boggling transfer fees themselves (compared to zero for Messi two decades ago); imagine the associated wages - which now are precisely the problem. The club had spent recklessly, and now they can't offload anyone because, understandably from the players' point of view, they want to stay on the gravy train and they have contracts saying they can, and none of that wage reduction nonsense for them, thank you very much.
I do wonder how the fans are going to react to the transfer refuseniks when the season kicks off, though. Not well at all, I would imagine. (And I've seen two games at the Camp Nou - it's bloody terrifying! That city is obsessive.)