What must Barcelona do to afford Ferran Torres?

Ferran Torres continues to be linked with a transfer to Barcelona, even though the Catalan club are in serious financial trouble. It is believed that Manchester City would be willing to sell the 21-year-old for €45m, which would still represent a €17m profit for the English side, but Barcelona will struggle to meet this price tag.

How, then, can Joan Laporta and his fellow directors make this move happen? Here comes a discussion of Barcelona’s complicated financial situation and the accounting gymnastics that would have to happen.

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Barcelona’s small salary cap

In LaLiga, there is a spending limit for all clubs and this dictates how much can be spent on the registrable squad, which includes costs related to players, the manager, assistant manager and fitness coaches. Barcelona only have €97.9m this season, which is far less than Real Madrid (€739.2m) and also lower than five other clubs: Sevilla (€200.4m), Atlético Madrid (€171.6m), Villarreal (€159.3m), Real Sociedad (€127.7m) and Athletic Club (€111.8m).

Barcelona’s wage bill is much higher than the €97.9m and this is allowed by LaLiga, since teams already over the limit can remain over it because they have contractual obligations to fulfil. But, teams over their limit can only sign new players if they bring in some income and, even then, they’re only permitted to put 25% of any money that they recoup in savings towards new players.

What is Barcelona’s current situation?

CEO Ferran Reverter revealed in October that Barcelona would have around €20m to spend in January, thanks to savings they made at the end of the summer transfer window. To afford Ferran Torres’ transfer costs and wages, they’ll have to raise some further funds.

Who could Barcelona sell to raise transfer funds?

If Barcelona make savings by offloading wages and receiving a transfer fee, then they’ll be allowed to put 25% of these savings towards boosting their spending limit.

The quickest way to do this would be to sell a valuable asset, such as Frenkie de Jong. As his father John de Jong said this past week: "I know that Barcelona need money and a big offer for Frenkie could help. I don't think that will happen soon. However, five top European clubs have called.”

Even if Barcelona do collect a significant fee for De Jong, they’d still need to move on some fringe players too to increase their limit, with it important that the Blaugrana keep an eye on next year too. The spending limits are partly determined based on income and Barcelona are set for a tough year in that sense, having suffered early Champions League elimination and having struggled all season to sell tickets for matches at the Camp Nou.

The situation really is desperate at the Catalan club and if they do want to sign a top player like Ferran Torres, they’ll have to, at the very least, give up a star member of the current squad to make the numbers add up.