FC Barcelona have gotten to a rocky start to their 2017/18 season. If we analyze how things have gone for them, Los Blaugranas already lost Neymar and were defeated in the Spanish Super Cup against Real Madrid. And to make things more complicated, they have not been able to sign a replacement for Neymar with less than two weeks left on the transfer market.
Yikes. That’s not how the fans envisioned the start of the season. Not when you have more than €200 million to spend on the transfer budget. And while losing against Real Madrid was always a possibility, Barca’s biggest problems have been off the field. So far the management has not been able to re-invest the money they received for Neymar properly.
Let’s see what Barcelona have done so far. They received €222M for Neymar and have already spent €40M to sign Paulinho. Paulinho is a decent signing, but let’s face it: he’s not a player that will put Barcelona over the top at the domestic or European level. They also acquired Yerry Mina from Palmeiras on a €9 million deal, but the Colombian defender will only join the club in January. And even when he does, he’ll likely back up Gerard Pique and Samuel Umtiti.
So summing up, Barca have spent €49M in two replacement-level players. And even though they have almost €180M left on their budget, they have not completed any other move. The move for Philippe Coutinho will likely crash and burn since Liverpool do not want to part ways with their star player. The same goes for Borussia Dortmund and Ousmane Dembele. Barca do not want to pay what Dortmund are asking. So it seems they will lose out on two of their biggest transfer targets.
Things get worse, though. Los Blaugranas switched their attention to Angel Di Maria and Jean-Michaël Seri. But nothing suggests they are close to land any of them. Di Maria could be close, but they need to reach an agreement with both the player and PSG before the transfer window shuts in early September.
Seri’s case is a strange one as well. There were reports of Barca reaching a €40M deal with Nice. However, the French side decided to increase what they’re asking for their talented midfielder. So now it remains to be seen whether the Ivorian playmaker will land at Camp Nou or not.
There are less than two weeks to go before the transfer market closes. And right now Barcelona have almost €200 million to spend on their budget. Whether they can sign Coutinho, Dembele, or neither of the two, the team NEEDS TO DO SOMETHING. Otherwise, they are at risk of gaining a secondary role behind Real Madrid both at the domestic and European level.
That’s not what the Barca fans want. Especially considering they have the resources to improve the side considerably.