Barcelona seem to have moved plenty of money around in order to make a big comeback in the transfer market this summer. At the end of the season, Barcelona would have been unable to compete for their usual array of stars.
Yet in June, Barcelona’s members approved the activation of President Joan Laporta’s famous ‘financial levers‘, which were in effect a sale of assets ahead of time. According to the club, they should be able to operate normally now after a season of cutbacks at Camp Nou.
Yet that hasn’t assured the rest of European football according to talkSport pundit Alex Crook. Speaking in relation to the potential transfer of Raphinha from Leeds to Barcelona, Crook claims that not only do Barcelona want to delay any payment for Raphinha until next year, but that there are fears they may not be able to make the payments they commit to.
❌ “Barcelona don't want to pay their first instalment [for Raphinha] until next year.”
😳 “There’s a genuine concern amongst clubs that Barca may not be around to pay the first instalments.”
Alex Crook says selling clubs are concerned about the future of Barcelona pic.twitter.com/vuUYUm8qtU
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) July 9, 2022
Obviously it has to be taken at Crook’s word that these fears come from somewhere. There is little doubt that Barcelona are treading a thin financial line in order to return to the elite.
Yet it does seem somewhat confusing that these fears would be harboured by other clubs, when large financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs are confident enough to continue loaning money to Barcelona. In addition, their problems with signing players over the last 12 months have related more to La Liga’s spending limits rather than cash flow.
