Five reasons Haaland won’t join Barcelona – and money isn’t one of them
Paul Macdonald
- Updated: 14 Dec 2021 14:07 GMT
- 4 min read
Mino Raiola’s meeting with Barcelona president Joan Laporta in Turin on Monday has led to an explosion of new transfer reports that Erling Haaland could be heading to Camp Nou next year.
However, apart from the fact that Barcelona are €1.3 billion in debt and will struggle to finance a deal for the Borussia Dortmund star, there are five other reasons why a transfer is unlikely.
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1. The threat of no Champions League
This is a real and genuine concern for Barcelona. Their league form simply isn’t good enough, with Xavi’s side recording just one win in their last five and currently sitting five points outside the top four.
What’s more, their run of fixtures doesn’t get any easier, with three of their next four matches away from home against Sevilla, Mallorca and Granada. Given that Barca have, astonishingly, one won once away from home in La Liga all season, and the suggestion that they should ‘come good’ in order to secure qualification is far from a foregone conclusion.
2. The threat of Barca becoming Milan
This is another genuine concern. This Barcelona team is showing some of the hallmarks of what happened to Milan in the early 2010’s; mismanagement of squads and funds led to an inevitable demise that saw them nosedive out of the Champions League for eight years. They are only now on the road to recovery.
Why would Haaland want a club in transition or to waste any time there? Is the ‘draw’ of being a marquee player there better than the opportunity to actually win things? It just doesn’t seem logical that a superstar that has already ‘served his time’ as it were, with RB Salzburg and Dortmund, would be interested in another transitional move. Haaland’s time is now, not in another two/three years.
3. He doesn’t fit the project
Xavi is still finding his feet as a coach at this level but it’s clear and obvious that 4-3-3 is his formation and tiki taka is his philosophy, and in the past out-and-out goalscorers haven’t performed massively well in that style of play.
It’s arguable that Haaland is better than some of the contemporaries who have tried to play that role in the past and is a more all-round player, but make no mistake, he is being approached for his goalscoring exploits first and foremost. He’s not the obvious fit for how Barcelona set up that some people think and Haaland may be better served in a more complete, and modern, pressing project.
4. Bigger than the club?
If we are willing to accept that Haaland would want to play a key role in rejuvenating the failed Barcelona project, which is a real stretch for a man with the football world at his feet, then we need to acknowledge that upon arrival he instantly dwarves the status of all the players around him.
Pedri, Nico, Gavi and Ansu Fati have the potential to be the foundation of Barcelona for a decade but they don’t have anywhere near the gravitas of a Haaland at this point, and none of his sway. Is a guy like Haaland going to walk into a dressing room and take a back seat, or is he going to influence things for better in some ways, but likely worse in others?
Having such an obvious MVP in a dressing room recovering from losing the last one could be a dangerous and counterproductive situation.
5. Raiola knows a better deal - for him and Haaland - is out there
It comes down to this - money aside, the overall packages which will be placed in front of Haaland will be such that Barcelona’s current situation simply cannot compete.
Financially, yes, better wages and commission will be out there, but the overall incentives for the player - being competitive in the Champions League, or winning the Premier League - are just too enticing in comparison to the hand that Barcelona can play.
Barca have enough on their plate; rising debt, attempting to fund the Espai Barca project, succumbing to La Liga on their CVC deal, and that’s before we reach the on-pitch problems. There’s literally no reason for Haaland to walk into all of this unless we assume that Barcelona remain one of the biggest clubs and draws in the world.
That last point is, at the moment, very much up for debate.
