Barcelonismo has recovered the illusion. A few months ago it was unthinkable to feel that the Camp Nou would once again be a party against modest clubs like Valladolid and Rayo. Laporta decided to bet everything for the wheel to turn again and Barça has strengthened very well and closed a market of notable signings. The icing on the cake would have been to be able to do without some of the footballers with the highest salaries, outside the market, who are dragging themselves from the previous term. And here I go.
After selling assets – the famous levers – to be able to give oxygen to the institution and face the renewal of the staff, Barça will no longer receive more than 50 million per year in the coming years. Money that was supposed to arrive, but will not arrive. This, having exhausted the levers, will lead to the imperative need to improve income immediately: in the match day (tickets, tours…), sponsors, income derived from sports results and new ways of financing. But the key will not only be to earn more, but above all to spend less, the great capital sin of Bartomeu, blinded to reach the 1,000 million at all costs and forgetting the culture of containment that he had established – at the hands of the general manager, Antoni Rossich – his predecessor and friend Sandro Rosell. And here, a new bubble of oxygen can be seen not far away.
Laporta and Alemany have ordered the salary scale. The new contracts are market, even Lewandowski’s, as he has revealed What are you playing with? (at least the first two years: not the last two). But there are exceptions: the captains, De Jong, Umtiti… If the club could release any of these players, the wage bill would plummet. It would be the ideal scenario. That, or a downgrade. But, if this does not happen, Barça will see, at the latest two years from now, how the 50 million that will no longer be paid in will be compensated by the end of the contracts of Piqué, Alba and Busquets. In fact, between salaries and bonuses, the figure the club will save on these three players would double that hole.
Piqué and Alba are out of contract in 2024 and Busquets next summer. This season Barça already has the budget saved thanks to the levers, while next season they will have to work hard not to fall into the red again. This implies, therefore, that Barça would do very well to solve the case of the three captains this same year. The substitutions of Alba and Piqué can help. Of course, no matter what happens, the evils will not disappear overnight: the debt continues to skyrocket, Espai Barça must be faced and the balance between ordinary income and expenses would remain out of date despite the ‘goodbye of the captains.
