Barcelona made a crucial mistake by losing Lucas Bergvall to Tottenham Hotspur – Matteo Moretto

Barcelona is licking its wounds after missing another teenage talent in Lucas Bergvall. The 17-year-old Swedish talent elected to move to Tottenham Hotspur instead of the Blaugrana in the final hours of the transfer window, after Barcelona had been confident of sealing the deal. It ended in a particularly painful way for the Catalans, less than a week after Xavi Hernandez had announced his resignation.

Bergvall will earn more money at Spurs, like Djurgardens, and is expected to get more first-team game time in London sooner rather than later. There are a number of factors that led him to that decision, including the advice of his family, abandoning his dream move in the process.

Barcelona feel that they have done everything they could, and that in the end the money talks, however Matteo Moretto points on The Daily Briefing, Spurs' urgency for his signature appeared late in the game. If Barcelona had completed the negotiations earlier, after a pursuit that lasted at least two months, then they might not have had to compete with Spurs.

It has been a feature of Barcelona's transfer dealings of late that the players they want are revealed to the media long before they sign, and these transfer sagas tend to last for some time. It allows him to apply pressure to other clubs, but also allows other teams more time to maneuver, as is the case with Bergvall.