Lionel Messi wants Barcelona to immediately sack club legend

Barcelona skipper Lionel Messi is unhappy with his club's overall recent performance. Reportedly, he wants one of Barca's most crucial members to be sacked immediately.

Barcelona continued putting pressure on the league leaders Real Madrid after the former won 2-1 against Levante on Sunday evening. Ansu Fati scored twice in the 30th and the 31st minutes and helped the Catalan side claim three points.

Barcelona now has 46 points to their name after playing 22 matches. Real has also played the same number of games, but they are three points ahead of Barca.

Messi and Fati were the only consistent players during the outing, as most other players failed to make a mark in Camp Nou.

Luis Suarez' injury has recently resulted in the Blaugranas' struggle for goals. Antoine Griezmann has failed to deliver at crucial times. Unfortunately, it is likely that the Uruguay international wouldn't be back in the team within the next three months. In the meantime, Barca was tipped to sign a short-term striker during the January window. However, they didn't proceed with such a deal.

Fansided reported that Messi has recently asked his club's board to get rid of Eric Abidal from the club's sporting director position, after the Frenchman failed to make significant new signings. Abidal's performance has reportedly not impressed Messi over the last few months. The Argentine legend had insisted that Barca should sign an experienced player to fill in the role of Suarez.

Previously, Andoni Zubizarreta was the club's sporting director. He did quite an impressive job for five years before he left after falling out with Barca's board of directors. His marquee signings included Suarez and Neymar. In contrast, Abidal has fuelled the arrivals of expensive flops like Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele.

Messi feels that Barca needs a new striker to continue aiming for victories across competitions this season. He also felt that Valencia's Rodrigo would have been a great signing.

However, Barcelona failed to sanction such a move for the Spain international worth 60 million euros. Quique Setien's men will next face Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey quarter-final and Napoli in the Champions League.