How Barcelona could line up WITHOUT new signings
FT Desk
- 11 Aug 2022 12:00 CDT
- 3 min read
Barcelona have spent €160 million on Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Jules Kounde this summer, but they might not be able to register any of them in time for the start of the new La Liga season.
Barcelona's recent off-field travails have been well documented, and the Catalan giants have activated "financial levers" - essentially trading future club revenues for liquid capital now - in order to be active in this summer's transfer market.
As well as the astronomical fees paid to Bayern Munich, Leeds and Sevilla for Lewandowski, Raphinha and Kounde, they have acquired Franck Kessie and Andreas Christensen on frees from AC Milan and Chelsea respectively, while they had to re-sign Ousmane Dembele and Sergi Roberto after their original deals expired.
All have seen action in pre-season, which included glamour friendlies against Real Madrid and Juventus in the United States, but La Liga remain unconvinced that Barca's books are sufficiently balanced, and Xavi might have to put up with an all-too familiar first XI as the 26-time Spanish champions get their season underway.
How Barcelona might have to line up
In attack, there would be no Lewandowski. His understudy Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang would likely lead the line, with Memphis Depay approaching a transfer away from Camp Nou to Juventus. Aubameyang was Barca's 20-goal top scorer last season despite arriving from Arsenal in the winter transfer window, but Lewy scored 50 goals in 46 games last term and the Pole's former Borussia Dortmund teammate remains a downgrade.
Either side of a striker in Xavi's preferred 4-3-3 system are a collection of wingers who encapsulate what has gone wrong with Barca's jumbled transfer strategy in recent seasons. Ansu Fati and Ferran Torres would be first in line to play - the former a product of La Masia and considered one of the brightest prospects in world football, the latter bought last December from Manchester City in a €65 million deal.
Hamstring and knee injuries have held up Fati's progress, but his spot could so easily have been Ousmane Dembele's given Barcelona already owned him. Like Sergi Roberto, the Frenchman's contract wasn't renewed this summer, and he instead signed a new deal when concrete offers from Chelsea and others failed to materialise.
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Behind them in midfield, Frenkie de Jong remains one of the best players of his kind in the game, but he is Barca's highest earner and most saleable asset, ranked by Football Transfers' in-house algorithm at €61m. His sale is seen as crucial if Barca are to satisfy La Liga's financial regulations, but he is still owed €20m in deferred wages and this far baulked at the prospect of joining Manchester United.
Barca's best XI is still impressive, and most of these players were runners-up to Real Madrid in La Liga last term, but president Joan Laporta wants to win titles, and spending big was his solution to problems off the field as much as on it.
If Lewandowski and Co. can't even be registered to play, Barcelona will have some serious egg on their faces.
