COMMENT: You don't turn down Barcelona, right? Philippe Coutinho. Eden Hazard. Dele Alli. If Barca comes up on their phone, they're accepting the call, right?

It's a once in a lifetime opportunity. To replace Neymar at Barca? How do you turn that down?

But this isn't the Barca of Pep and Laporta. Nor is it Luis Enrique's Treble winners. This is a team... no scrap that. This is a club not only in transition, but crisis. And as attractive as Barca remains for any young player, at this moment in Barca's history, there must be hesitation.

From Paris to Doha, they're convinced it's a done deal. The Qatari cash, all €222m of it, was switched from the state's bank account to PSG's over the weekend. Neymar will leave his sponsorship commitments in China and fly not to Barcelona but Doha, where he will undergo a medical - possibly as early as Tuesday. There, he'll also meet Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the PSG president. And upon approving his contract, PSG will wire the money to Barca without need for negotiation.

€222m? Surely that's enough for any club, let alone Barca, to rebuild? Find a replacement for Neymar. Plug the holes in midfield and defence. Bish bash bosh. And away we go...

But Barca's woes run deeper than simply their team sheet. They've been wobbling for some time. Only this summer, the Neymar saga has managed to bring much of it to the surface.

Inside the boardroom, the realisation that Neymar has been lost to the club has only just dawned. There's a scramble now to find a replacement. Three offers have been made (and rejected) to Liverpool for Coutinho. There's lobbying inside the dressing room for Tottenham to be contacted about Alli. And Hazard's name has also been discussed, though his fractured ankle complicates negotiations with Chelsea.

But before anyone connected to the Premier League begins unfurling their white flag, just consider what any of these three names would be stepping into.

For in the week that Barca had resigned itself to losing their No11, a doco by TV3 made the stunning claim that Lionel Messi not only wanted to join Pep Guardiola at Manchester City last summer, he actually tried to engineer the move personally. The pair even met face-to-face in Barcelona to thrash out terms. The only reason it fell through was Josep Maria Bartomeu, the Barca president, making it stone cold clear that he would be held to his contract.

Now, perhaps last month's new deal has eased the tension. But Neymar only penned fresh terms in October. And there's been plenty of rumblings from Messi's camp about the lack of progress being made by Bartomeu and co in the market. At 30, Messi knows his window is closing. He wants to spend his remaining years winning things, not carrying a mediocre team on his shoulders.

Bartomeu's great nemesis, Joan Laporta, summed things up earlier this summer: "I am very sorry to see that they are destroying the model that has made us great. They do not know how to carry out the transfer of players, they are squandering the few years that could remain glorious because we still have (Lionel) Messi."

But this runs deeper than simply Messi wondering whether he should be following Neymar out the exit door.

There's also Andres Iniesta and his contract. Yeah, the skipper. Having postponed negotiations midway through the season to "assess things", he is yet to return to the table - even with his current deal now having less than 11 months to run.

So there you have it: doubts swirling around the club's two most important personalities (though Gerard Pique, himself, would surely argue otherwise!). But wait, there's more...

Because at the other end of the scale is the La Masia academy - and it's, erm, collapse. But don't take our word for it. Just listen to another Blaugrana icon who has been speaking out in recent weeks.

"Barça has fallen asleep. They thought they were above the rest. The coaches of the juniors have to train players, they have to teach, what else does the children's league have to do?! If you win, great, but it's not the goal."

Those words were from Xavi, the former Barca captain. But he's no Robinson Crusoe. Again, from Laporta: "The fans are divided and La Masia has been dismantled. Everyone is suffering."

Okay, Laporta obviously has an agenda. But not Xavi. And after seeing Jordi Mboula snapped up by Monaco. Having Carles Puyol and Ivan de la Pena ferry Erick Garcia away to Manchester City. Clearly, for the system and culture which produced Xavi, Messi and Iniesta, something is broken.

Which is why Dele, Phil, Eden - indeed any major personality - needs to think carefully about swapping the Premier League for the Nou Camp.

Neymar is gone. There's doubts over Messi and Iniesta. And the academy is falling away. The platform upon which Pep built Barca's modern day success is crumbling.

Even with all that Qatari money, will it be enough to rebuild what, as Laporta puts it, has been "squandered"?