El Clasico: Rebuilding Barcelona - and will club lose its identity amid massive changes?

When Barcelona president Joan Laporta spoke of the club's «very worrying» £1.15bn debt last summer, it was a dark moment for one of world football's great institutions.

That public omission came the week after the departure of Barca's greatest player, Lionel Messi, despite Laporta having all-but guaranteed the Argentine and his father Jorge that a new contract would be forthcoming.

So perilous was Barca's financial situation that two weeks later they loaned Antoine Griezmann to Atletico Madrid, two years after spending £107m to take him in the opposite direction. There were efforts to offload £135.5m striker Ousmane Dembele too. It appeared the club's squad was being ripped apart.

And yet, seven months on, there is optimism at the Nou Camp.

Yes, they are out of the Champions League and find themselves in the unfamiliar environment of the Europa League.

Yes, they are out of the Copa del Rey. And yes, they are 15 points behind league leaders and fierce rivals Real Madrid, who they meet on Sunday in a Clasico that, for once, is likely to have little bearing on the La Liga title race.

But there is at least a brighter future emerging, one that seemed barely believable last summer.

In Laporta, Barcelona have a man who has been here before.

He was elected president for the first time in 2003, finding a club at its lowest ebb, in debt and with deep-rooted unhappiness and disappointment from both players and supporters alike. The trophy cabinet had remained unopened since 1999.

On returning to the role just over a year ago, Laporta would have been forgiven for thinking things couldn't have been quite as bad this time around.

In fact, they were much, much worse.

When the figures were finally unravelled, it showed that debt in excess of