Barcelona just about managed to register Joao Cancelo and Joao Felix with minutes remaining in the transfer window this summer, but it is a situation that illustrates just how tight the money is at the Blaugrana. While in part it is more about fitting players into their salary limit, once again President Joan Laporta and Treasurer Ferran Olive had to put up a bank guarantee in order to ensure the deals went through.
The feeling within the club is that this is not sustainable, and having juggled fees and salaries this summer, Sport say that Barcelona are in need of a major sale in order to give them breathing room in terms of their position. Regarding their salary limit, a large sale would allow them to reinvest and continue growing, rather than the current slightly suffocating situation.
The Catalan daily go on to detail that the option Barcelona would most like to sell is Ansu Fati. The Blaugrana attempted to sell him this summer, but no move came off, and did the same with Frenkie de Jong the previous year. It is noted that Fati will likely have to perform at Brighton on loan in order to facilitate that, something yet to happen.
🚨 The club's precarious situation will last at least for one more summer. To approach planning calmly, Barça need one big sale in 2024. Right now, the main idea is to sell Ansu. @sport pic.twitter.com/YbKuhxe65L
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) October 3, 2023
For that reason, Sporting Director Deco will listen to offers for ‘almost all of the squad’ next summer. The club will be open to giving up one major star in order to fix their financial issues.
It is little surprise that this is the case. Despite their major financial issues in recent years, Barcelona have not made any major sales, even if they have bid farewell to major names and salaries. Since Josep Maria Bartomeu left the club, the €50m gained for Ousmane Dembele is the highest fee Barcelona have received, although even that was well below market value due to his release clause. Before that, the €25m received for Emerson Royale is the largest the fee Barcelona have earned.
