Barcelona will look to strengthen again this summer, with the club openly admitting they want to sign Lionel Messi, and manager Xavi Hernandez declaring that a holding midfielder is his number one priority this summer. However they will need the approval of La Liga to do so.
The Blaugrana are still unable to register the contracts of Ronald Araujo, Gavi, Sergi Roberto, Inaki Pena and Marcos Alonso, but cannot do see as they are currently over their salary limit. However they will look to do so once La Liga approve their viability plan.
Having submitted a business plan for the next two seasons detailing how the movements they want to make are financially viable, La Liga have been looking over that plan in recent weeks. Barcelona were hoping to get the green light to begin actioning their plans last Friday, but according to both Diario AS and Sport, the league have asked for more time to review the materials.
The Catalan daily say that Barcelona are still confident that they will be given the go ahead by La Liga, but even if that is the case, the delay will begin to have an impact.
If it is indeed the last days of may or the first week of June that the plan is improved, it will cost them time to implement these operations – something that affects their ability to negotiate. Regarding signings, the delay may persuade players to accept other offers.
Equally, if the plan was rejected, it would leave the Blaugrana little time to reconfigure their plans ahead of the market opening, although planning an alternate strategy would be a good use of any extra time they have as a result.