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BARCELONA. — Who better to sum up the shambolic mess at FC Barcelona than club president Joan Laporta? 

“We have passed from a terminal illness, now we are in the intensive care unit,’’ he said earlier this summer. “We need to activate financial levers to move us back into the ward and out of the hospital.’’

Football’s grandest institution, a whopping £1.14billion in debt, is crumbling.

And, with just one day until Barcelona kick off their league season, the club are prohibited from registering their five summer signings by La Liga — about £140million worth of players.

Yes, you read that right: a club more than £1bn in the red has made a trolley dash to spend more money than any team in Europe, with signings such as the prolific striker Robert Lewandowski from Bayern Munich and former Leeds talisman Raphinha.

Fans on social media have compared the club to a friend who says they’re unable to pay you back the £20 they owe you — then you see them spending freely at the pub on a Friday night.

Or as Bayern Munich boss Julian Nagelsmann put it: “The only club that has no money but buys every player they want. It’s crazy, kind of weird.’’

But enough of the analogies and Laporta talking in riddles.

How did a club steeped in such a rich history get to the precipice of extinction? And why have they seemingly decided that the way out of the crisis is to spend, spend, spend?

Think back to August 2021. 

The image will haunt Barcelona fans: Lionel Messi, the club’s greatest ever asset and the greatest footballer ever to walk the planet, wiping away tears as his upper lip quivered in sorrow and grief during his forced goodbye for Paris Saint-Germain.

Over the four years from his final contract extension in 2017, the club paid Messi more than £460m.  As his salary tripled within 10 years, the team whose motto is mes que un club became more like Messi’s Club.

The Argentine could voice discontent about a coach and, within days, the coach would be sacked. New managers would come in and turn to him at half-time, ‘What would you do, Leo?’. — Mailonline.