A cruel fate that any losing side of a sports competition must deal with is facing the media to try and explain exactly what went so wrong. Following Friday's embarrassing and historic 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarterfinals which led to the reported firing of Quique Setien, Barcelona defender Gerard Pique was forced into that role and did not hold back when discussing the club's outlook as a result of the loss.
With rumors of Messi's ongoing unhappiness with the club looming over everything, Pique was naturally asked about where the club goes from here with regards to its first team. He kept things blunt and said that things could not continue as they currently are, including who's on the team.
"Shame is the word, nobody is indispensable," Pique said after the match. "If new blood has to come and change this dynamic, I am the first to leave and pack it up. Now we have hit rock bottom.
"I'm in pain. We all are. We can't compete like that. It's very, very tough to take. Nothing more is worth saying. The club needs changes. Not just the players, I don't want to point out anyone."
You can watch the entirety of Pique's dejected interview below.
A dejected Gerard Piqué describes his feelings around the club following the match and what needs to happen on and off the pitch. pic.twitter.com/cNiGwbeR5Q
— Champions League on CBS Sports (@UCLonCBSSports) August 14, 2020
The Spanish player even includes himself in that group. He's one of the eight players remaining in the Barcelona squad from the last time the team won the Champions League back in 2014. Pique naturally recognizes that since then, none of the changes within the club have yielded any kind of significant improvements that got the club anywhere close to that apex six years ago.
Not only have they failed to reach that level of success again, they've also faced a couple of heartbreaking collapses in this very competition. Last year, they blew a 3-0 lead against eventual champions Liverpool in the semifinal, and the year prior to that they ended up blowing a 4-1 lead against Roma in the quarterfinal. Even in 2017, when they had their historic comeback against PSG, they crashed out of the competition one round later in a 3-0 aggregate loss to Juventus.
