The summer transfer window has not quite closed but one question is already worth asking: how can Barcelona convince players to join them in the near future?
The past few months suggest they will have a job on their hands. Earlier in August, Barcelona let their big signing of last summer, Ilkay Gundogan, go back to Manchester City on a free — because they desperately needed space on their wage bill to register their top transfer from this year, Dani Olmo.
To make things worse, Gundogan’s exit was put into motion by rumours and reports in the local media — informed by Barca sources — claiming his salary was standing in the way of the club’s plans for 2024-25.
“When you leave and spend one year away as I did last season, you realise what you had,” the 33-year-old said in his first interview back at City.
Gundogan was arguably Barca’s best player across last season, and nobody created more goalscoring chances than him in all of La Liga. But he was not the first player to be tested by the club’s entorno — and nor should we expect him to be the last. It’s a diabolical tendency, but this is how Barca works.
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Of the five signings Barcelona secured last summer, only one is still at the club. That is Inigo Martinez, whose own future has been cast into doubt several times. He was asked to take a pay cut just months after signing last year. He refused.
Oriol Romeu has left for Girona. Gundogan is back at City. Vitor Roque has been sent out to Real Betis, while Joao Cancelo (Al Hilal) and Joao Felix (Chelsea) have not returned after their loan spells, despite Barcelona talking up their chances of coming back several times.
Gundogan applauds Manchester City fans on Saturday, the day after his Barca exit (Neal Simpson/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images)
If we go back another year still, of the players who arrived in the great lever-pulling summer of 2022, Jules Kounde stands alone as the only player not to have been pushed towards the exit. Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Andreas Christensen have all been placed in that position. Franck Kessie, also signed in 2022, was sold a year later.
Barcelona has become a place where footballers can struggle to feel safe. Being a big-money signing does not assure you of your position. Even though you might have a long-term contract as a shield, you will be exposed to the toxic elements at play around the club — and that requires some character to deal with.
Perhaps there is an argument to suggest this level of pressure and demand is also what makes Barcelona a global and fascinating brand. It’s always been a double-faced sword and players also get their benefits from it, because going places with Barca transcends your profile in a different way.
But in recent years, the financial dimension has added an extra layer of fragility.
Nico Williams did not join Barcelona this summer in a big part because he was unsure of the club’s economic reality and whether he could be registered or not by the start of the season.
Sources from Athletic Bilbao — who, like all those cited here, preferred to speak anonymously to protect relationships — conceded his departure was on the cards at several points this summer. When the 22-year-old signed a contract extension last season, he insisted on inserting a feasible release clause (it is in the region of €55million ($59m; £47m) in case he wanted to take on a new challenge.
Williams and Yamal as Barca took on Athletic Bilbao last weekend (Pedro Salado/Getty Images)
Barcelona’s interest was real. Their proposal was not realistic. Williams was wary of Barcelona. Olmo, by contrast, wasn’t. That’s why the club turned their attention to the 26-year-old instead.
The example of Olmo, in a way, explains the only way Barcelona might be able to lure high end signings now. Either they have a sentimental bond with the club or the city, or they are in a desperate situation to leave their clubs.
Both of those things were true of Olmo. As a graduate of Barca’s La Masia youth academy, and with his family still based in Catalonia, the sentimental link was clear. He was also really determined to leave RB Leipzig this summer after reaching a gentlemen’s agreement a year earlier with the club to do so.
As surprising as this might sound, it did not seem Olmo had that many other suitors this summer. Sources close to the player said Liverpool and Bayern Munich were also following him. However, Liverpool sources always distanced the club from that possibility, and Bayern signed Crystal Palace’s Michael Olise at the start of the summer. Other potential suitors like City did not make significant approaches either.
It is here where this Barcelona can come as an appealing prospect.
Olmo scored on his Barca debut on Tuesday evening (Denis Doyle/Getty Images)
Club president Joan Laporta and sporting director Deco wanted Olmo’s signing as a demonstration of their power, the latest proof that, despite bad publicity in the industry, Barcelona were still capable of landing a big fish. Olmo is indeed a footballer of that level. But what came after did not do any favours to their fame.
It comes down to this. If Christensen hadn’t been afflicted by an Achilles problem, Olmo’s dramatic registration would most likely have run right down to the wire.
Even with the departures of Gundogan, Clement Lenglet, Mika Faye and the rest (Barca raised about €40million — 33.7m/$44.3m — in player sales and Gundogan was among their top three earners), they were still short of bringing themselves in line with La Liga’s salary limit.
Is it all Laporta’s fault? There’s arguments to say it’s not all down to him and his board. They inherited a dramatic financial state from former president Josep Maria Bartomeu, following on from the Covid pandemic. Long-term debt was already over €1billion, the club were spending €676million in salaries and days before resigning from his role, Bartomeu signed four contract extensions that were a poisoned chalice.
Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Gerard Pique, Lenglet and Frenkie de Jong separated themselves from the collective negotiations over salary cuts to take during the pandemic and agreed to sign new contracts that saw all of them deferring money from Bartomeu’s last financial year at the club to push it to upcoming years, when Laporta took over.
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Pique has retired. Ter Stegen signed a new contract in 2023 to help spread his salary. De Jong and Lenglet are still on those same deals.
Barca have reduced their wage bill by about €184million since Laporta arrived. The Camp Nou revamp has been ignited and a net spend of €55m has been invested in signings across the past four seasons.
But it is the constant feeling of improvisation on their decision-making that hints of nothing truly changing. This is the third consecutive summer that Barcelona have struggled to register new signings. The long-term debt has not been really reduced. There’s money missing from the Barca Media lever arranged two years ago, and it is choking the club’s room for action.
Olmo and Martinez will have to be registered again in January. Barca will be forced to generate more financial room by then.
Club sources say they are close to announcing a new sponsorship deal with Nike that will be up to the best in the industry, but the reality is that they hardly have a strong negotiating hand with anyone.
(Top photo: Getty Images)
