Joan Laporta with Robert Lewandowski, Barça’s star signing. /
Transfers
The Barça club, which has already invested up to 153 million euros in transfers, is the one that has spent the most money so far in the summer window
Barcelona is the great attraction so far in the transfer market, which closes in a month. The entity chaired by Joan Laporta left with an empty shopping basket and has returned loaded with players of substance such as Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha or Jules Koundé. These transfers have made Barça the club that has invested the most this summer to date, ahead of Premier League giants such as Arsenal, Manchester City or Chelsea, and even above the always luxurious Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain. Germain.
“If it creates concern in our pursuers, it is that we are doing well,” Joan Laporta stressed last week in New York when asked about the large outlay of the Blaugrana club. And it is that Barcelona has gone in a few months from absolute ruin in the economic section to throwing the house out the window. Barça has already paid out 45 million euros in this transfer market for Lewandowski, 58 for Raphinha and 50 for Koundé, fixed figures that raise spending to 153 million and could go up to 185 if these three reinforcements comply with each and every one of the variables that the club chaired by Laporta left attached in their respective transfers.
These figures place Barcelona as the entity that has spent the most on transfers throughout the entire planet. Barça’s 153 million are ahead of the 137.5 that Bayern Munich has spent on Matthijs de Ligt (67), Sadio Mané (32), Mathys Tel (20) and Ryan Gravenberch (18.5). The German club is Barça’s most immediate pursuer in a list in which the Premier League once again shows the muscle exhibited in recent years. Up to six English league clubs arrive after the Germans. Arsenal is third with 132.06 million, followed by Manchester City, Leeds, Tottenham Hottspur, Nottingham Forest and Chelsea. The ‘top 10’ is completed by PSG and West Ham.
The economic miracle of Barça has its explanation in the famous economic ‘levers’ of Joan Laporta. The maximum president culé brought to an extraordinary assembly in July a vote to sell 25% of the television rights for the next 25 years and 49% of BLM, the company in charge of exploiting the club’s retail business. The proposal was approved and Barça has already managed to sell the first part to Sixth Street for 522.5 million, a figure with which the Catalans saved the economic course and decided to invest an approximate amount of 200 million in signings. “This will allow us to repay the debt in a reasonable way and build a competitive team,” Laporta assured.
And so it has been. Barça has entered the month of August not only having made important signings to strengthen the squad, but also without letting go of important players. The Catalans have a negative balance in this market of 127 million euros. No one in all of Europe has sold so little having invested so much. Arsenal led by Mikel Arteta has a balance of -117 million, followed by West Ham, Nottingham and Chelsea. The Catalan club presents this balance after having encountered an alarming blockage in the exit operation until now. Xavi Hernández does not have Neto, Umtiti, Riqui Puig and Braithwaite, separated players, for whom Barça expects to receive income, while the culé board has put Frenkie de Jong and Memphis Depay on the market, for whom the plan is to receive a figure close to 100 million. To date, only 20 million have entered the culé box for Coutinho, three for Mingueza and three more for the transfer of Trincao.
a breaking point
The signings of Lewandowski, Raphinha and Koundé, joined by the arrivals at zero cost of Christensen and Kessié, represent a breaking point with the arrivals policy of the Barça club in recent months. Last season, Barça, already immersed in a deep economic crisis, ended the summer market with the only incorporation at an expense of Emerson Royal, a player who was transferred for 25 million to Tottenham. Along with him, Memphis Depay, Eric García, Sergio Agüero and Luuk de Jong arrived for free.
That good, nice and cheap suffered its first turn in winter with Ferran Torres, for which Barça paid 55 million to Manchester City, and with Aubameyang, who arrived, yes, at zero cost. The culés closed the course with an investment of 70.55 million euros and with 69.5 entered from the sales of Emerson, Junior Firpo, Todibo, Aleñá and Monchu and the transfers of Rey Manaj and Antoine Griezmann. This summer that balance has been broken and only the sales of Frenkie de Jong and Memphis Depay could cushion such an unbalanced balance.
