Joan Laporta, by his own admission, is going to have to prove himself a master juggler this summer if he is to successfully retain Lionel Messi and improve the overall quality of the Barcelona squad.
The president has given Messi assurances that the team will be improved and he has made various astute acquisitions already.
Snapping up free agents Memphis Depay, Sergio Aguero and Eric Garcia was a strong start to the transfer window for the Catalan club, while they have also brought in Emerson Royal for nine million euros, but they still need to offload some players in order to balance the books and secure Messi‘s future at the Camp Nou.
The big challenge for Laporta is to ensure that the squad comes out of all this upheaval looking stronger and with Messi still forming part of it. For some, the two are mutually exclusive and he must choose between them, but the president will continue his juggling act.
The Blaugrana have already moved on some players, either permanently or on loan, but there is a growing expectation that dispensing with fringe players won’t cut it. Laporta is going to have to make a more serious sacrifice.
Francisco Trincao has been loaned out to Wolves, Matheus Fernandes has been released and Juan Miranda has joined Real Betis on a free transfer. Meanwhile, Konrad de la Fuente and Jean-Clair Todibo have been sold to Marseille and Nice respectively for relatively modest sums, and Junior Firpo is reported to be closing in on a move to Leeds United.
However, that likely won’t be enough and Barcelona will need to further reduce the wage bill – as offering Miralem Pjanic and Samuel Umtiti on free transfers shows – and a more significant transfer fee received would also help.
Griezmann not untouchable
With injuries to Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele complicating any attempts to sell them, Antoine Griezmann becomes one of the Blaugrana‘s most sellable assets that they are prepared to part with.
The Frenchman hasn’t quite lived up to expectations at the Camp Nou and is on a hefty salary. A stumbling block, however, is that the club would look for a large fee as they still owe Atletico a large portion of his transfer.
Selling Griezmann is still viewed as an emergency escape plan, but the club are coming round to the idea as they run out of options and face the real risk of not being able to register some of their new signings.
Wage cuts
The other major theme in this area is the issue of established stars taking a pay cut. Barcelona‘s stars aren’t keen on the idea, but Laporta will have to convince some of his top players to continue to defer wages in order to comply with financial restrictions.
