What if a key team player leaves and it all gets Messi?

 The loss of its greatest ever player, a once in a generation thrashing at the hands of Bayern Munich and a long overdue reshaping of the playing squad and first team – there are a variety of reasons for the problems facing the most famous football club in the world. I have some opinions on how this has happened, including failures in the transfer market, the blocking of the pathway from the famed La Masia academy to the first-team, an unhealthy level of power and influence wielded by a few senior players, and a slowness to react to changes in the way that the modern game is played.

But you'll be very pleased to know that this isn’t about those opinions; rather, it's about what I as an employment lawyer might consider relevant considerations for a business (and whichever way you cut it, FC Barcelona is a $4 billion business) concerned about the impact of the loss of one or more key team members.

To be clear, out of scope: what Dan thinks of the 4-3-3 formation, "false 9s", relationship dynamics within elite football clubs, which position Antoine Griezmann should play, would I swap Messi for one of Salah/Mane/Firminho.

In scope: employment law.

So, here's three points:

Think. Once you have identified key staff or directors whose departure would have a significant detrimental impact on your business, you need to consider what contractual measures are appropriate – this might mean non-compete agreements, loyalty bonuses, golden handcuffs/deferred compensation arrangements, stipulations about soliciting clients or team members. You might also want to consider the extent to which it is helpful or healthy to have these kinds of disputes in public, and take appropriate steps including mandatory arbitration in respect of contractual disputes.

Keep thinking. You need to keep this point as a rolling item in your consideration of your risk register – things change, some parts of your business might evolve in ways you hadn’t foreseen, new team members might acquire strategic importance, or the Argentinian genius around whom you've built a successful 17 years could lose a yard of pace. The key thing is that this is not an issue to consider as a one-off, but as one to be reviewed periodically.

Timing. Just like holding off a pass until your Uruguayan colleague reaches the edge of the penalty box, timing in this instance can be quite important. The value of a business is linked to the value of its assets, including its human assets. Where a purchase of a business is being considered, prospective purchasers need to understand who the key staff are and what protection is in place to keep them with their existing employer. From a seller's point of view, getting these issues sorted before the critical moment is crucial. From the human asset's point of view, this is the point of maximum leverage.

There's no telling how this story will play out – and actually, the end result is probably irrelevant from an employment law perspective. What is very relevant is the reminder that it offers us all – put simply, start planning for this before it all gets Messi.