The sad reality of Barcelona

Barcelona has changed its transfer policy. It means that it will not invest a large amount of money in one player.

British media ‘Tribuna’ discussed Barcelona’s changed transfer policy, citing Spanish media ‘Sport’ on the 6th.

Barcelona changed its transfer policy amid the club’s growing financial limitations and economic crisis, the media said. “We will focus on recruiting the best talents who have not yet blossomed without spending money on expensive players whose careers are in twilight.”

The media added, “This does not mean that Barcelona will not try to sign with the best players, but will only try to recruit discriminatory players who can improve their squad immediately in insufficient positions,” adding, “With the new strategy, we will be excluded from the competition to recruit players like Erling Holan.”

In the past, Barcelona was more famous for nurturing players through its youth system called La Masia than recruiting players from outside and settling for the first team. So was Lionel Messi, the greatest soccer star in history, and so did Chavi Hernandez, Andrés Iniesta, and Gerard Pique, who led Barcelona’s heyday.

He also lavished investment on positions that he lacked. He brought Neymar, Brazil’s top talent at the time, from Brazil, and paid huge transfer fee to Liverpool striker Luis Suarez, who also completed the “MSN” trio with Messi and achieved a treble. Barcelona was once successful in both fostering and recruiting players.

However, Barcelona faced a crisis as Messi left the club and its main players left the club one by one. Barcelona broke the club’s record fee and brought in Philippe Coutinho, Usman Dembele, and Antoine Griezmann, all of which failed. Barcelona invested more than 100 billion won in these players, but failed to show anything, and the team faced a recession.

Former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu remained unchanged despite his failures. Rather than developing youth players, which are his strengths, he brought in proven players one by one, with little success in recruitment. Bartomeu is considered the worst president ever, worsening Barcelona’s financial situation.

It was Juan Laporta who succeeded Bartomeu as Barcelona’s president. He also took charge of Barcelona in the 2000s and laid the foundation for its golden age, and took the helm again in 2021.

With Laporta taking over as president, Barcelona is about to return to its past self. It has actively fostered and hired a coach who knows well about La Masia players. It was Chaabi who joined Barcelona last season. Cha gave young players from La Masia, including Gabi, Pau Kubarthy, and Ramin Yamal, who were born in 2004, and gave them an opportunity to play as starting members, and they have established Barcelona as the present and the future.

This stance is expected to be maintained for the time being. While Chavi will step down as Barcelona’s coach at the end of this season, Laporta has no intention of changing his stance.

It seems unlikely that Barcelona will be able to recruit Hallan, the current top striker. Spanish media Mundo Deportivo said last month that Barcelona aims to recruit Hallan from Manchester City ahead of the 2025-2026 season. The move was aimed at forming a rivalry with Kylian Mbappe, who is likely to move to Real Madrid after the end of this season.

However, in order to recruit Holan, he may have to renew Barcelona’s highest transfer fee. Last season, he scored 36 goals in the Premier League alone, breaking the record for most goals scored in a single season, and is the leading scorer in the Premier League with 19 goals this season. It is natural that the amount of over 200 billion won is over 200 billion won for the player who is likely to compete with Mbappe for the next Ballon d’Or. 토토

Manchester City would not let him go either. Manchester City and Holan’s contract runs until the summer of 2027, with three years left until the end of the season. Manchester City is also about to delete the release clause by re-signing with Holan, who has a release clause of 200 million euros.

“Barcelona will rely on Roberto Lewandowski, the current front-line striker, to focus on fostering youth players like Vitor Hoque instead of signing Holan,” Tribuna said.