Leo Messi is fed up with president Sandro Rosell

The Barcelona striker feels the president hasn’t supported him over the tax-dodging accusations.

As Ramón Besa says in [Spanish newspaper] El País, Barcelona appear to be suffering more damage from internal and external divisions at the club than they did during the three years of fighting against José Mourinho’s Real Madrid. On Thursday, in Trentino, Italy, it was Pep Guardiola, in the Bayern pre-season training camp, who attacked the leadership of Sandro Rosell. Before that Eric Abidal was in tears (he’s now been presented as a Monaco player) as he failed to understand why he wasn’t having his contract renewed. There was also the way the club behaved towards David Villa, looking for his replacement, firstly with Alexis, then with Neymar. The feeling is that the Spanish international was never really given a chance to recover from the serious injury he suffered at the Club World Cup in December 2011.

And now Messi’s name can be added to the list of people who are sick to the back teeth of Rosell. Neither the footballer or his father feel they have received sufficient support over the the tax-dodging accusations and this is seriously damaging a relationship that has never been particularly close. Sandro Rosell and his board of directors have done almost nothing since the news about the charges first broke; previously the President was the first line of defence for any Barcelona player with troubles. Other directors have privately criticised the way in which the star striker’s fortune was managed, but none of them have offered to support or help the family to clear the matter up.

For the first time since Messi arrived at Barcelona as a 13 year old, the transfer market senses there is a real possibility of enticing the player to leave. Wagging tongues suggest that a multimillion euro offer would be better received at the moment by the Messi family than at any time in the past 12 years. The Barcelona board don’t want to even consider the possibility of their star man leaving, but they need to improve their relationship with him if they don’t want things to get out of hand.