MADRID • Barcelona's worst-ever defeat in Europe, an 8-2 mauling by Bayern Munich, will signal the end of Quique Setien as coach but it feels like the end of more than that.

Setien may not even survive the weekend, but the fact a second sacking in eight months - following Ernesto Valverde's dismissal in January - would be the least of Barca's worries says it all.

"The club needs changes," said defender Gerard Pique. "Fresh blood is needed to change this. We've hit rock bottom."

Talisman Lionel Messi was supposed to win it alone on Friday, the Argentinian forward charged with somehow masking the failings of an entire club against one of the most formidable teams in Europe.

It was a desperate hope, swiftly dashed by a ruthless Bayern side, whose demolition exposed Barcelona's ageing team for what Messi has been saying all along: They are simply not good enough.

He said it in February and again last month, when a rant in the aftermath of handing Real Madrid the La Liga title turned into a brutal, but honest, assessment of their season.

Messi saw the fall coming but it was too late to do anything about it and the question now is whether he wants to be part of the process of recovery and renewal.

Most have assumed it would take something cataclysmic for him to leave but, at an elite football club, what could be worse than this?

Messi, 33, knows his end is near but he will choose when it comes. Others may not be so lucky, with Pique and Luis Suarez also 33 and Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba 31.

All of them have played a part in Barca's golden era but that period feels a long time ago now and, if this team are to regenerate, brave decisions will have to be made.

Frenkie de Jong, Ansu Fati and Riqui Puig are the future, smothered this season by the failures of those ahead of them. Perhaps it is time they should be trusted to lead.

Who will then spark the Barca revolution in the hot seat remains to be seen, with Xavi Hernandez, Mauricio Pochettino and Ronald Koeman all sufficiently put off that they rejected the chance in January. Will they be any keener now?

Barcelona will not have the money to make big additions, meaning they may have to look within.

But that would be a long-term project, which the club cannot guarantee either given their presidential elections are due next year. A new regime could bring a new coach too. A year might even feel like a long time for the current president Josep Maria Bartomeu, who would not rule out the elections being brought forward on Friday.

Since 2014, his board have stumbled from blunder to blunder, all the while alienating the dressing room, driving this period of chaos.

It began with Neymar leaving and never being replaced, the frantic attempts to bring him back then failing because the funds had been squandered elsewhere.

Barcelona have also paid the price for their failings in recruitment, bringing in too many players who were not up to standard. When they have signed players of quality, too often they have failed to integrate them into the team.

Nothing highlighted that more than the sight of Philippe Coutinho, signed for more than £100 million (S$179 million) from Liverpool but now loaned out to Bayern, scoring twice in the final minutes.

As Messi, who last lifted the Champions League trophy in 2015, watched helplessly while his Barcelona side were ripped to shreds, he must have been wondering if he will ever win it again should he remain at the club.

This very much felt like the end of an era for a team that dominated world football between 2009 and 2015 and were even more hegemonic in Spain, winning eight of the previous 11 La Liga titles before losing out to Real this year.

Messi has been the team's spiritual leader, but the catalogue of failures in Europe has made possible the previously unthinkable scenario that he could leave. His contract runs out next year, meaning he could depart for free.

He has also appeared increasingly disillusioned with the club in the last year, hitting out at sporting director Eric Abidal in January and also aiming fire at the club's hierarchy over their handling of a recent pay cut amid the pandemic.

Xavi had said Messi had earned the right to have an automatic renewal clause due to all he has given them, but, looking at their decline, will he want to sign a new deal?

Unless Barca make the radical changes Pique called for, it is difficult to see Messi being reunited with what he has called "that beautiful Cup, which we desire so much".

At the end of the day, the "Barca way" is a team that win playing attractive, entertaining football.

The manner of this defeat was so far away from that ethos, it is surely going to take a very painful process to rediscover it, with or without Messi.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS