No Depay, No Aguero - Why Barcelona can't register ANY new signings
Cameron Smith
- Updated: 23 May 2023 08:47 CDT
- 4 min read
The fact that Barcelona are in a financial mess is fairly well-known, however, it's worse than almost everyone had thought.
The big-money signings of Ousmane Dembele, Antoine Griezmann and Philippe Coutinho have not only failed to work, for the most part, on the pitch, but the issue they've caused off the pitch is substantial.
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Barcelona are simply piled in debt. It's been reported that they now owe up to €1.1 billion, and they are swamped.
Many fans had hoped that Lionel Messi's contract would be renewed, but at this rate, not even their new signings will be able to be registered to play.
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That's right, according to multiple reliable sources, Barcelona are unable to register Memphis Depay, Sergio Aguero, Eric Garcia, or Emerson Royal after exceeding the Spanish league's salary limit.
Why can't Barcelona register their new signings?
Put in place at the beginning of March, the Spanish salary cap has massively hindered Barcelona, and they need to reduce their wage bill by €200,000.
That's despite selling Junior Firpo to Leeds, Jean-Clair Todibo to Nice, Konrad de la Fuente to Marseille, loaning Francisco Trincao to Wolves with an option to buy, and terminating the contract of Matheus Fernandes.
The club are aware that these sales simply aren't enough, and they estimate that to register their four new signings, they must find a way to offload the wages of the aforementioned Coutinho, Samuel Umtiti, and Miralem Pjanic.
Pjanic in particular is a tricky case as Barcelona still owe €45m for the swap deal with Arthur going to Juventus. If he were to go out on loan, the club would still have to pay his annual amortisation but would save €16m in annual salary.
It’s been one month since @ericgm3 returned home! 💙❤️ pic.twitter.com/eTtWFNrlXV
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) July 3, 2021
However, the problem is finding a destination for these players. They're all declining and most clubs simply don't have the money to cover their wages due to the impacts of the pandemic.
Furthermore, Barcelona will need to judge whether it's better to loan or sell to get money in the books.
In addition to this, even if they are able to get rid of Coutinho, Umtiti and Pjanic's wages, added to those already sold, it wouldn't be enough to pay the wages of all their new signings.
That is because due to Spanish rules, they would only be allowed to spend 25% of the €90m removed from their wage bill. Memphis, Aguero, Garcia and Emerson would cost €29m per year, which is more than 25%.
That means that the club will need to find even more players to offload, or not all their new signings will be able to play for the club.
There is a reason why Barcelona have been pursuing free transfers, but even that hasn't saved them enough money yet, and tough decisions will need to be made on who will stay, and who will go.
