I say it mainly because it hurts but...they should've snapped our hands off when Messi activated his own exit clause via that burofax.
We were offering (supposedly) £100m for him. He wouldn't have activated it without some sort of assurances that there was a club willing to go balls deep for him and an educated guess would say that was us/Pep.
Their pride kicked in and Bartomeu refused to be known as the president who sold Messi as opposed to thinking of the club first.
The fee plus the saved wages would've helped them tenfold and Messi himself gave them their own get out clause by putting the request in first. Daft bastards!
Why would we have paid them £100m, or even £1? Was the whole point of him activating it thatbhe would go for free. Which they blocked with the threat of a legal challenge over the timing.
Anyway, irrelevant, their hole was a lot bigger than 100m.