Barcelona had a sky is falling loss to Valladolid 1-0 to drop to four points behind Real Madrid and one point behind Atlético Madrid in La Liga just over a week ago. Barcelona last finished third in 2008 and have won four out of the past five La Liga titles. Barça has won six of nine since they last finished outside of the top-3 in 02-03

The end of Barcelona’s remarkable run has long been anticipated with the expectation that a dramatic rebuild instead of subtle reloading is an inescapability.

But Lionel Messi’s early chase down of fellow Argentine Sergio Aguero all the way from the halfway line to the edge of Barcelona’s own penalty area, a region Messi rarely ventures, was a signal of the urgency Barça was bringing to the second-leg of the Champions League match against Manchester City despite a 2-0 lead on aggregate.

Messi scored in the 67th minute on a characteristic Barça scoring opportunity foisted upon Man City with Xavi centering to Dani Alves who played it immediately to Cesc Fàbrega and then took one dribble toward goal and found Messi cutting just inside the penalty box to flick the ball into goal as the Man City defense seemed to collapse in confusion. Messi finished brilliantly with a similar flick of the ball as the one he utilized after the Aguero chase, but it was manufactured largely before it even arrived to him.

That goal effectively put Barça through to the quarterfinals of the Champions League for the seventh consecutive season. As remarkable as that alone sounds, Barça is one stage away from also reaching the semifinals for the seventh straight season.

Man City is clearly a flawed team not quite ready for the biggest stages in Europe, but they are also very expensive and very talented. For Barça to so severely outclass Man City in the midst of their own disorder is a signal of the greatness this team still possesses.

Messi’s injuries this season have been sobering and signal his soccer mortality, that he won’t be swaddled forever to slalom down the pitch as the eternal exclamation mark on tiki-taka. He remains Barcelona’s best player, scoring eight goals in his five Champions League appearances with the highest WhoScored rating in the tournament.

Barcelona was able to construct this roster almost entirely upon the foundation of La Masia, their legendary academy.

Barcelona has been second in the world in revenues behind Real Madrid since 08-09, but they were a much more modest superpower dating back to 02-03 when they weren’t even in the top-10. Joan Laporta wanted to compete with Real by duplicating their model to acquire David Beckham, but the consolation prize on that loss became the much better Ronaldinho, who would trigger the beginning of the Barça ascent. 

Most of the other high profile transfers were players just passing through, from the relative success of Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto’o, to the umitigated disasters of  Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Dmytro Chygrynskiy.

Barcelona has needed the infusion from David Villa and of course Dani Alves, but the skeletal are La Masia alums Messi, Andrés Iniesta, Xavi, Pedro and Sergio Busquets.

Even the transfers for Gerard Piqué and Fàbregas were former academy members coming home from England. Piqué cost just £5 million to come home from Manchester United, while Fàbregas was a costly £35 million fee from Arsenal. Jordi Alba returned to Barcelona in 2012 under similar circumstances.

Club teams at the highest levels of European soccer are rarely assembled with such a heavy reliance on homegrown talents, something Piqué astutely noted recently.

“The problem is that people get used to [success]" Piqué said to Sid Lowe of The Guardian. "The reality is that all these people have not cost a euro and there are loads of them - Andrés, Leo, Xavi, Víctor, Puyi, Pedro ... that's unique, that might not happen again."

The transfer for Neymar was necessary but addled and will become increasingly commonplace, particularly when Barcelona lets the young heir apparent to 34-year-old Xavi leave for Bayern as they did with Thiago Alcântara. Xavi’s game is all about geometry and he still completes his 100 essential passes per game, but he is as one-dimensional as ever and it is difficult to see Alcântara with the second highest average rating for Bayern in Bundesliga matches not remaining with Barça even if La Masia is undoubtedly loaded with a dozen 16-year-old Xavis.

Victor Valdes is leaving on his own accord this summer, making goalie the most immediate need and his replacement will apparently be Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

Carles Puyol has been essentially gone since 2012 and recently made it official that he too will depart at the end of the current season, but Marc Bartra has looked ready for full time work during his La Liga appearances.

Beyond that departing pair and Xavi, this team remains strikingly young.

Iniesta will turn 30 in May, but he’s on a new contract and he’s brilliant enough to remain one of the world’s best midfielders for another four seasons like Xavi.

Dani Alves is nearly 31, but he’s been right behind Messi and Neymar in his productivity.

The remainder of the regulars won’t be confronted with aging out of their primes for another half dozen seasons, so while Real has caught up and Bayern has overtaken the throne, let’s remap that wane of Barça. 

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