Barcelona's 5 biggest transfer mistakes since Neymar left

FT Desk

• Updated: 15 Jun 2022 05:24 CDT
• 6 min read

Barcelona have somehow found themselves €1 billion in the red since Neymar's world record €222 million move to Paris Saint-Germain in 2017. From Philippe Coutinho to Ousmane Dembele, we look at their biggest transfer mistakes since.

Barca have been giants of world football for decades, but backroom disaster has befallen the club, and it is touch and go whether they can even register free transfers Andreas Christensen and Franck Kessie this summer.

Barca CFO Eduard Romeu recently said that the club needed half a billion euros to survive.

"The number doing the most damage is asset imbalance," he told Spanish daily Sport. "The negative capital of €500m. I said it before, if someone wants give me €500m - that's what we need to save Barca."

How on Earth did a club still ranked as the most valuable brand in world football according to Forbes find themselves in such a predicament? The below ins and outs go some way to explaining that...

Philippe Coutinho

• Bought for: €150m
• Sold for: €19.6m
• Net profit: -€130.4m

It is fair to say that Barcelona panicked when PSG activated Neymar's release clause in the summer of 2017 - the €222m release clause designed to ward off bidders instead inviting the Qatar-backed club to acquire one of the world's best players.

No player epitomises their subsequent panic more than Coutinho. A star for Liverpool, Barca paid the third-highest fee in history for Neymar's fellow Brazilian midway through the following campaign, but he struggled to shine in Lionel Messi's shadow and was loaned out to Bayern Munich at the end of the following season having returned just 25 goals from 106 games.

To add insult to injury, Coutinho scored twice for Bayern AGAINST parent club Barca as the Germans thrashed them 8-2 in the 2019/21 Champions League quarter-finals. The Bundesliga side ultimately baulked at his permanent fee, though, and Aston Villa secured his signature - after another loan - for a relative snip at €19.6m this summer.

Ousmane Dembele

• Bought for: €115m
• Sold for: Free?
• Net profit: -€115m?

The seventh-most expensive transfer of all time, Dembele arrived at Camp Nou from Borussia Dortmund three weeks after Neymar left. A promising talent who had just been named the Bundesliga's Rookie of the Season after contributing 10 goals and 21 assists in all competitions, Dembele was two months past his 20th birthday when he arrived.

Prodigious on one hand, perhaps immature on the other, Dembele struggled to adapt to life in Catalonia, staying up late playing video games and regularly turning up late to training. He was only trusted with 12 La Liga starts in his first season, which was hampered by injury and nonetheless returned three goals and six assists.

He enjoyed his best period in a Barcelona jersey under Xavi in the second half of the season just gone, ending the campaign with 13 assists, but his contract is up this summer and Barca face the very real prospect of losing him on a free - €115m down the drain?

Antoine Griezmann

• Bought for: €120m
• Sold for: €40m?
• Net profit: -€80m?

At least with Coutinho and Dembele, Barca signed a pair of players who were equally as comfortable lining up on the left, on the opposite flank to Messi. But what they were thinking in paying Atletico Madrid €120m - the fifth-most expensive transfer of all time - for a player who occupied exactly the same space on the field as their crown jewel is anybody's guess.

A left-footed attacker who likes to drift inside from the right, Griezmann was already a world champion with France when he swapped Atleti for Barca in 2019, but 35 goals in 102 games were not the return Blaugrana fans were hoping for, and Griezmann returned to his previous club on loan last summer, with an obligation to make the deal permanent for €40m in 2023.

With Griezmann also commanding a salary of €17m in his first Barca season rising to €21m in his second, his arrival was part of the reason the club couldn't afford to keep Messi from following Neymar to PSG last summer. As one observer put it, Griezmann effectively cost Barcelona €120m, Lionel Messi, and Antoine Griezmann.

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Miralem Pjanic

• Bought for: €64m
• Sold for: ?
• Net profit: ?

Bosnia midfielder Pjanic was signed from Juventus in the summer of 2020 for €64m, as part of a swap deal that saw Brazilian youngster Arthur move the other way for €72m - so far, so positive, at least in a financial sense; a like-for-like change on the field for an €8m profit.

But Pjanic is seven years Arthur's senior, and his legs were already beginning to go at the wrong side of 30. Previously a star for Lyon and Roma as well as Juve, Pjanic only managed six La Liga starts for Barca and was shipped out on loan to Besiktas at the start of last season.

He may have a €400m release clause - Barca long since scarred from their Neymar experience - but the Camp Nou outfit are unlikely to recoup even a fraction of Pjanic's original fee, let alone that enormous sum.

His high fee was an accountancy trick to make the books of both Barca and Juventus look healthier in the short term. Indeed, it simply kicked the can of their problems down the road. Now they are facing the reality of the situation.

Arturo Vidal

• Bought for: €20m
• Sold for: €1m
• Net profit: -€19m

Arturo Vidal might be described as a relative success in this list - at least as far as on-field exploits go - he did feature in 33 games as Barca lifted the La Liga title in 2019 after all. But paying €20m for a midfielder two months past his 31st birthday was ill-advised at best, especially given the direction of the club's finances.

Vidal's presence also blocked Gavi's path into the first team, and Barca subsequently sold the Chilean to Inter Milan for €1m plus variables in September 2020.