Barcelona fans have not had the best of weeks after news broke that star player and club legend Lionel Messi could leave the Nou Camp after he clashed with officials. They had their woes compounded when the five-time European champions were dumped out of the Spanish Copa Del Rey by hosts Atheltic Bilbao at the quarterfinal stage on Thursday night.

Athletic Bilbao are through to the semifinals of the competition after they beat Barcelona 1-0 courtesy the late goal from Inaki Williams.

For Messi, troubles started when Barcelona sporting director and former teammate Eric Abidal called out the players for the dismissal of Ernesto Valverde.

According to him, the attitude of the Barcelona players led to the exit of Valverde who was replaced Quique Setien last month some days after he was sacked. Lionel Messi was swift in his response as he called on Eric Abidal to be specific about his namecalling.

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Lionel Messi has been linked with several clubs on the back of the row with Abidal including Manchester City though manager Pep Guardiola was quick to point out that he wants the great Argentine to finish his career at the Nou Camp. Messi played under Nou Camp legend Guardiola for many years at Barcelona.

Let’s take a look at the clubs that could afford to pay the €40m annual salary of Messi if the 32-year-old decides to do the unthinkable by leaving Barcelona this summer.

1. Manchester City

The Premier League champions have the highest wage bill in the English top-flight with £145m paid to players annually. The Citizens can easily afford Lionel Messi’s salary.

2. Manchester United

The Red Devils have a wage bill of £135m on a yearly basis and they are only second to noisy neighbours Manchester City. The Red Devils gave Chilean flop Alexis Sanchez around £500,000 weekly and they have the capacity to pay Messi.

3. Real Madrid

The second highest-earning football club according to the recently released Deloitte Money League and they can afford to pay Messi that salary but the only stumbling block would be his affiliation with arch-rivals Barcelona.

Spanish La Liga champions Barcelona certainly need a major shakeup in the summer especially after a torrid season till date.

Barcelona pulled the plug on Ernesto Valverde as their manager shortly after the Spanish Super Cup tournament last month when a lot of the club’s fans thought that decision would have been made after the Champions League collapse at Liverpool last season.

Barcelona had taken a 3-0 lead at home in the first leg of their Champions League semifinal tie with Liverpool before the team collapsed to a 4-0 defeat to the Reds at Anfield in the second leg thereby losing a three-goal advantage for the second successive season under Valverde.

In his first season at the club, Ernesto Valverde lost a three-goal lead against Italian Serie A capital club AS Roma in the second leg of their Champions League quarterfinal tie.

Barcelona had taken a 4-1 lead at home in the first leg before losing the second leg of the last eight tie 3-0 in Rome. The Barcelona hierarchy led by the controversial Jose Bartomeu decided to sack Valverde after the 3-2 loss to Atletico Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup last four in January.

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The Catalans went on to appoint Quique Setien in his place after club legend Xavi Hernandez turned down the job mainly for the treatment of Valverde by the Barcelona board before his sack was announced.

Barcelona were also rocked by the injury to star striker Luis Suarez after the Uruguayan was ruled out of action for four months after knee surgery. The club failed to sign a striker when it was evident that one was required.

The Catalans are expected to be very busy in the transfer market irrespective of what happens between now and the rest of the season. Here are the players that could leave Barcelona this summer.

1. Philippe Coutinho

The Bayern Munich loanee is expected to return to Barcelona this summer after his loan spell with the Germans before being sold to a new club in the summer possibly.

2. Ivan Rakitic

The Croatian has just one year left on his Barcelona contract and a move away from Barcelona this summer is most likely.

Chelsea striker Olivier Giroud has emerged as a shock transfer target for Spanish La Liga champions Barcelona who are looking for a short-term replacement for the injured Luis Suarez.

Barcelona will have to navigate the next four months without star striker Luis Suarez after he underwent knee surgery earlier this month.

The Spanish champions have until Thursday night to sign a striker replacement for Luis Suarez who picked up a knee injury during the Spanish Super Cup competition in Saudi Arabia at the start of this decade.

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Several strikers have been linked with Barcelona over the past few weeks and the latest player to be linked with the Blaugrana is French World Cup winner Olivier Giroud via the Daily Mail.

The Chelsea striker wants to leave Stamford Bridge this month in search of first-team football that will keep him in shape for the 2020 European Championships.

Giroud is the first-choice striker for the French national team and he needs more first-team football at club football to maintain that position with AS Monaco striker Wissem Ben Yedder breathing down his neck.

Wissem Ben Yedder was recently named the Player of the Month for December in the French top flight and he’s also a regular for his team, unlike Giroud.

According to Catalan news publication SPORT, Premier League giants Arsenal have said NO to the transfer proposal from Spanish La Liga club Barcelona.

The Spanish champions want to take leading scorer Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on a short-term loan until this summer without any obligation to sign him at the end of the loan spell and the proposal was swiftly rejected by Arsenal officials who are clear on their stance that the club skipper is not for sale.

Barcelona wanted to sign either Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang or RB Leipzig star Timo Werner to cover up for Luis Suarez who will miss the next four months after knee surgery.

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Luis Suarez had to undergo knee surgery that has effectively ended his season after he picked up a knee issue during the Spanish Super Cup tournament in Saudi Arabia earlier this month.

Aubameyang has scored 16 goals for Arsenal this season with 14 of those goals coming in the Premier League.

Barcelona have since turned their attention to Valencia striker Rodrigo with the fellow Spanish La Liga club keen to do a deal for their player.

The Catalans want to offer a loan fee of €10m for the Spanish international plus pay his weekly salary with the option to buy him out rightly for €50m this summer.

According to Spanish news platform El Desmarque, Premier League pacesetters Liverpool are open to making a move for Barcelona winger Ousmane Dembele this month.

Dembele is rated at £85m which is a lower price in comparison with the transfer fee spent to sign him three years ago.

The young Frenchman was signed by Spanish giants Barcelona as a like-for-like replacement for Paris Saint Germain (PSG) Neymar who left the club for France in the summer of 2017.

The Brazilian national team talisman was made the most expensive player ever after PSG signed him for a fee of £200m.

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Part of the Neymar money was spent on his transfer from Barcelona to PSG and a big fraction of the cash was spent on Ousmane Dembele who had failed to repay that money.

Barcelona signed Dembele for £105m from German Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund.

Dembele had spent just one season at the Signa Iduna Park before his transfer to the Nou Camp.

Liverpool have been active in the January transfer window with the signing of Takumi Minamino for a surprising transfer fee.

The 24-year-old Japanese international has swapped Red Bull Salzburg FC of Austria for Liverpool after the Reds activated the £7.25m release clause in his present deal.

Six-time European champions Liverpool still retain an interest in Barcelona winger Ousmane Dembele as reported by Spanish news outlet El Desmarque via the Liverpool Echo who is a prominent media portal that deals with everything Liverpool.

Ousmane Dembele is currently out injured but that has stopped clubs from weighing up a move for the Frenchman.

It was stated that Liverpool will have to pay £85m for the player if they want to sign him from the Catalans.

The transfer would be a club-record deal for Liverpool ahead of the current recipient Virgil Van Dijk who was signed for £75m in January 2018.

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Liverpool paid that amount to Southampton for Virgil Van Dijk and that has proven to be money well spent as he has played a key role in the major trophies won since the start of last season.

The Reds ended last season with the Champions League title after the win over Tottenham Hotspur in their final clash that took place in Madrid.

Ousmane Dembele signed for Barcelona from Borussia Dortmund in a £105m deal and the Catalans want to recoup a lot of that money back.

He has won the league title in each of the last two seasons at Barcelona.

Manchester United are increasingly confident that they can win the race to sign wantaway Barcelona midfielder Arturo Vidal who wants more playing minutes, and he’s ready to leave the Nou Camp to make this happen.

According to journalist Herman Chanampa of DirecTV in the South American country of Chile, Manchester United have made a better offer for Arturo Vidal than their sole competitor Inter Milan whose manager Antonio Conte is keen to reunite with the player he managed at Juventus.

Corriere della Serra is an Italian media portal and a publication from the platform had earlier said that both Inter Milan and Manchester United will fight for the signature of Arturo Vidal.

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Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde wants to keep Vidal at the club despite the pressure being exerted by the two above mentioned European clubs.

Arturo Vidal is rated at around €20m and the 32-year-old earns around £147,000 on a weekly basis.

The retired Chilean national team midfielder provides a goal threat from midfield at Barcelona which no other midfielder can boast of.

Despite his uniqueness, Vidal has not always been in the Barcelona starting XI but he’s still the leading goalscorer for the Spanish club apart from the attacking front trio.

Several Chelsea fans want the club to sign Barcelona player Philippe Coutinho as they see him as a better option to the three options at the club.

Chelsea fan account on Twitter ‘The Blues’ compiled the various tweets from a lot of Chelsea Faithfuls asking for the club to sign Brazilian international Philippe Coutinho from Spanish La Liga giants Barcelona.

Coutinho was a Premier League player until January 2018 when he left Liverpool to join Spanish La Liga champions Barcelona in a club-record deal of around £142m.

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The Brazilian playmaker didn’t have the best of times at Barcelona during his 18 months at the club before he signed for German Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich on loan this summer.

He has been able to resurrect his football career at Bayern Munich who can sign him for €120m to become their player as part of the loan agreement that took him to the Allianz Arena.

According to Catalan media outlet Mundo Deportivo, Chelsea are one of the clubs interested in signing Philippe Coutinho if Bayern Munich fail to activate the option of signing the playmaker permanently.

Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has a lot of money to spend on new players after the Blues’ transfer ban was lifted.