Barcelona: Charged with corruption .... again!

[FCBarcelona]

Any update on what their finances look like now?

Still bad but a lot of work was made this year.

~100M in sells
~150M less in salaries this year
Extra 55M from a pending dispute with Neymar that was provisioned as a lost that is fixed now for next year

It means almost ~25% of the total debt (short and long term)

We still have some pricey salaries
- Dembele (1 year): he will probably renew with lower salary.
- Umtiti (2 years): exfootballer. difficult to find a solution... i dont think he even cares about world cup. i think we will have to pay even if he leaves.
- Coutinho (2 years): if he continues with his bad form, there is still an opportunity next year if he wants to try playing the world cup.
- Pjanic (3 years): same as coutinho.
Hopefully we get rid of those salaries soon.

Some other are still overpaid (Pique, Alba, Busquets, Sergi Roberto...) but they reduced their wages, so not so critical.

I don't expect big signings (Haaland style) in about 2 years but there are still some good young players that can grow a lot.

Is there an explanation somewhere that explains why Barcelona was fine last season and couldn't field players this season? (if so, could you point me to it)

barça lost >300M in revenue due to covid and the salary cap was reduced almost by 50% within a season

 

[largelyworried]

So what does Barca’s first team look like after all of that?

 

[JB08]

So what does Barca’s first team look like after all of that?

I'm not a Barcelona fan or avid watcher (so somebody please correct me), but presumably something like...

ter Stegen
Roberto - Pique - Lenglet - Alba
Busquets
Pedri - de Jong
Dembele - Memphis - Fati
​

Not a bad team but far from prime Barcelona. For the first time in a decade I would probably fancy us against them if we played.

 

[The Purley King]

All the players that accepted a salary cut, is that permanent or will they be due the money they are giving up now at a later date?

 

[KirkDuyt]

Frenkie de Jong at United would be awesome. Could really be the missing link for you midfield if you ask me.

 

[MikeUpNorth]

I'm not a Barcelona fan or avid watcher (so somebody please correct me), but presumably something like...

ter Stegen
Roberto - Pique - Lenglet - Alba
Busquets
Pedri - de Jong
Dembele - Memphis - Fati
​

Not a bad team but far from prime Barcelona. For the first time in a decade I would probably fancy us against them if we played.

Their midfield still looks very good. But that front line leaves a lot to be desired.

 

[Dumbstar]

What are Pique, Busquets, Dembele and Depay's injury records like recently? Will they be more out than in most of the time? If out what does the real team look like?

 

[golden_blunder]

Barcelona are doing what they need to do, a step back this year to give 2 forward next year. With griezzman or without him Barcelona would have difficulty winning titles, the qualification for the champions will also get it.
This year Barcelona will save a lot of money in salaries.

Messi €100M+
Griezzman 40
Piqué, Busques, Alba, S.Roberto y Dembele will lower their salary a lot

Yeah but their team, especially up front is pretty shit. It’ll be a long few years for you guys to get back on your feet. I feel sorry for koeman

 

[kingwaynerooney]

Their midfield still looks very good. But that front line leaves a lot to be desired.

Front line looks good it's always their defense embarrassing them. They haven't fixed it since years.

Their RB, both their CB is shambolic and Jordi alba is above average. Ter Stegen needs to be replaced too.

 

[Spiersey]

Their midfield still looks very good. But that front line leaves a lot to be desired.

It’s a good front 3 if Dembele finds form. Big if though. Depay has looked very good so far from what I’ve watched, his time at United definitely seems to be the anomaly in his career. Fati is an incredible talent, hope he gets back to his form pre injury. I think the defence is more likely to let them down than the attack in the CL this season.

 

[MikeUpNorth]

It’s a good front 3 if Dembele finds form. Big if though. Depay has looked very good so far from what I’ve watched, his time at United definitely seems to be the anomaly in his career. Fati is an incredible talent, hope he gets back to his form pre injury. I think the defence is more likely to let them down than the attack in the CL this season.

I think that's being very generous. Dembele hasn't shown anywhere near enough. Fati looks a perma-crock. Depay is good but nothing special.

 

[Ishdalar]

I'm not a Barcelona fan or avid watcher (so somebody please correct me), but presumably something like...

ter Stegen
Roberto - Pique - Lenglet - Alba
Busquets
Pedri - de Jong
Dembele - Memphis - Fati
​

Not a bad team but far from prime Barcelona. For the first time in a decade I would probably fancy us against them if we played.

Almost, we should be looking at something like this

Ter Stegen
Dest - Araujo - Lenglet - Alba
Busquets
De Jong - Pedri
Dembele - Fati - Memphis
​

But due to the amount of CB's we have and our frailty on the wings, it could be more like

Ter Stegen
Araujo - Eric - Lenglet
Dest - De Jong - Busquets - Pedri - Alba
Memphis - Fati
​

And there's also the possibility of going into the 4231 Koeman loved past season.

Ter Stegen/Neto
Dest/Minqueza/Roberto - Araujo/Pique/Eric/Mingueza - Lenglet/Umtiti - Alba/Dest/Balde
De Jong/Roberto/Pjanic - Busquets/Nico
Dembele/Demir/Collado - Coutinho/Puig/Memphis - Pedri/Ansu/Braithwaite/Gavi
Memphis/Ansu/Agüero/Braithwaite/De Jong​

We still have top level players and, what's more important a lot of young players with potential and the minutes to play them, depth it's not a problem, as well as flexibility to adapt to any of those 3 systems, our problems are seeing how Ansu returns, if Dembele and Aguero manage to play a good amount of games, who become the new leaders of the team and if Dest, Eric, Demir and the rest are able to keep improving or they aren't good enough.

​

 

[RooneyLegend]

We should definitely tempt them with an offer for De Jong.

We should do it in Jan if they aren't in the title race.

 

[Pretzels81]

Umtiti is an ex-player,but I'm curious if Pjanic and Coutinho will become top top players again, "forcing" Koeman to use them in the Starting XI, especially Pjanic.

A working MF of De Jong-Pjanic and Pedri would be something and people are sending Barcelona to the Top3-5 places too quickly. That MF is just as good as Pogba-Matic-Bruno.

 

[cyberman]

Umtiti is an ex-player,but I'm curious if Pjanic and Coutinho will become top top players again, "forcing" Koeman to use them in the Starting XI, especially Pjanic.

A working MF of De Jong-Pjanic and Pedri would be something and people are sending Barcelona to the Top3-5 places too quickly. That MF is just as good as Pogba-Matic-Bruno.

Neither of those are sitters. It’s worse than having Fred back there hence the ghost of Busquets still playing.

 

[Pretzels81]

Neither of those are sitters. It’s worse than having Fred back there hence the ghost of Busquets still playing.

Koeman's decision. De Jong should be their new Busquets and Pedri purely an AMF. I'd say that only Pjanic isn't working, hence the current Busquets-De Jong-Pedri MF.

 

[cyberman]

Koeman's decision. De Jong should be their new Busquets and Pedri purely an AMF. I'd say that only Pjanic isn't working, hence the current Busquets-De Jong-Pedri MF.

De Jong was out of place back there before Koeman came along. He really isn’t a sitter, he’a similar to Fred as in his best position seems to be in between DM and attacker.

 

[Pretzels81]

De Jong was out of place back there before Koeman came along. He really isn’t a sitter, he’a similar to Fred as in his best position seems to be in between DM and attacker.

I could be wrong, but I thought he was playing as a sitter with Ajax and now with Holland

 

[bosskeano]

barcelona had an embarrassing summer in the transfer market and with how they handled their board room business....they are in shambles right now and you could easily see them finishing outside the top 4 this season in LaLiga and out of the CL quite early.

 

[FCBarcelona]

barcelona had an embarrassing summer in the transfer market and with how they handled their board room business....they are in shambles right now and you could easily see them finishing outside the top 4 this season in LaLiga and out of the CL quite early.

why was it embarrasing? biggest issue is we didn't get rid of umtiti/pjanic/cou.
we reduced >150M in salary wages and we got ~100M in transfer fees.

i dont think we are going to have issues to finish top 4, and getting to the knockout stages is all we can ask in champions league.
this was all expected. the only doubt was if we could keep messi but it came with a cost... it is better for the future that he left.

the griezmann operation has been very important (and good short and long term)

 

[Aidan Azar]

 

[Daysleeper]

I think that's being very generous. Dembele hasn't shown anywhere near enough. Fati looks a perma-crock. Depay is good but nothing special.

one moronic take after another. Depay has looked fantastic though it’s early days and Fati is easily one of the best talents in the world under 20. The defense has always been Barca’s issue

 

[Flying_Heckfish]

No pressure, lad

 

[bosskeano]

why was it embarrasing? biggest issue is we didn't get rid of umtiti/pjanic/cou.
we reduced >150M in salary wages and we got ~100M in transfer fees.

i dont think we are going to have issues to finish top 4, and getting to the knockout stages is all we can ask in champions league.
this was all expected. the only doubt was if we could keep messi but it came with a cost... it is better for the future that he left.

the griezmann operation has been very important (and good short and long term)

simply because you lost messi and griezmann deal where just two years ago you paid 120m for him only to loan him back to the same club for 7m with a 40m option. You lost 70m on this deal plus 40m in wages over two years.

Only to replace them with Luke DeJong, Depay and Aguero who combined won't get you the goal messi got you. The Emerson deal turned out to be a bit of a black eye maybe not in terms of the money situation but just how the business end of it was handled.

Needless to say, the board room is a disaster for Barcelona right now.

 

[Niemans]

barcelona had an embarrassing summer in the transfer market and with how they handled their board room business....they are in shambles right now and you could easily see them finishing outside the top 4 this season in LaLiga and out of the CL quite early.

I think totally differently. Barcelona has done a very good job in my opinion, with the departures of Messi, Griezzman and other players plus the salary adequacy of several more will save about 200M.
In transfers Barcelona has collected about 120 million more.
This year the important thing is that the young players are improving their qualities.
It would be something very rare for Barcelona to be left out of the Champions League.

 

[Niemans]

simply because you lost messi and griezmann deal where just two years ago you paid 120m for him only to loan him back to the same club for 7m with a 40m option. You lost 70m on this deal plus 40m in wages over two years.

Only to replace them with Luke DeJong, Depay and Aguero who combined won't get you the goal messi got you. The Emerson deal turned out to be a bit of a black eye maybe not in terms of the money situation but just how the business end of it was handled.

Needless to say, the board room is a disaster for Barcelona right now.

Barcelona have to see what is best for their future regardless of what has happened in the past, and the best thing is the sale of Griezzman
The problem of the previous board of directors was only to see the present.
I honestly would have stayed with Emerson for a year, I think he is a very interesting player and at 23 years old he is already an international with the Brazilian national team.
Barcelona has for me the best sports director in Spain and a great technical secretary (pedri, araujo, yusuf demir)
He has taken 15M for Firpo, 50M + savings of 45m/year in salary with Griezzman, Moriba 16+6 and 10‰ of a future transfer and many more small operations.

 

[MikeUpNorth]

one moronic take after another. Depay has looked fantastic though it’s early days and Fati is easily one of the best talents in the world under 20. The defense has always been Barca’s issue

I think you’re in for a fun few years.

 

[bosskeano]

just to be clear....i have nothing against Barcelona as a club. I loved watching their playing style over the years even to the detriment of United in the Champions League. It's more of a disappointment to see how they've managed the club and got themselves into a situation where they are "asking" players to reduce their wages and having somewhat of a firesale of players.

 

[Lay]

I think they did okay with getting rid of players. That’s a large chunk off their books now.

 

[Niemans]

just to be clear....i have nothing against Barcelona as a club. I loved watching their playing style over the years even to the detriment of United in the Champions League. It's more of a disappointment to see how they've managed the club and got themselves into a situation where they are "asking" players to reduce their wages and having somewhat of a firesale of players.

Bartomeu lost his mind the last 3 years of his mandate, received 222M for Neymar which was a blessing and went crazy. He blew up the salary scale with the renewal of Messi, the renewal of Alba, Busquest, Pique, S.Roberto and the signings and salaries of Coutinho, Dembele, Griezzman
Luckily Barcelona is owned by the fans and they were able to kick him out before he caused more damage.
Now it's time to heal. wounds and preparing for the future. There is a great generation of young people and next year there will be money for a great signing

 

[Dave Smith]

Bartomeu lost his mind the last 3 years of his mandate, received 222M for Neymar which was a blessing and went crazy. He blew up the salary scale with the renewal of Messi, the renewal of Alba, Busquest, Pique, S.Roberto and the signings and salaries of Coutinho, Dembele, Griezzman
Luckily Barcelona is owned by the fans and they were able to kick him out before he caused more damage.
Now it's time to heal. wounds and preparing for the future. There is a great generation of young people and next year there will be money for a great signing

This is all dependent on the securing CL and those young players developing as expected. Tbh, I reckon they have enough to get 4th however if they don't next year could be worse than this year as they'll not be able to keep all their best young players as they'll need to do more cuts.

Additionally, still not sure even if they get top 4 and their young boys' develop they'll have the cash to do a 'great' signing, if that means a top 10 player in the world, as their debt is still massive.

 

[Maluco]

Their squad has been hurt, but it needed to be hurt.

For those saying, “why are they doing this now, when they could have done it sooner and kept Messi!?”

Laporte is a very smart man. I strongly suspect that he wanted Messi’s salary off the books as soon as he came in. He has played the PR game superbly to paint a picture of a club stricken by losing their idol and of everyone pulling together, whilst being able to legitimately blame the previous regime.

But he wanted Messi gone, just like he wanted Greizmann gone, just like he wanted aging legends to cut their wages. He has done an incredible job of doing just that while managing to keep everyone on side.

Next year, they will be in the mix for Haaland, Pogba and paying big money for Olmo etc…

He has played a blinder and will be the hero when they successfully reduce the debt and rebuild with a fresh young side.

 

[FootballHQ]

Thought Barca would massively struggle to make top 4 last season when they had a really poor start and were dropping loads of points to bottom half teams but they comfortably finished in it and were very close to winning league in end of course.

So don't really see issues. Tricky start to the season and taken 7 points from 9.

Miles off competiting in CL though. Very much a case of being knocked out by first balanced team they face in knock outs. You'd fancy all of the English teams v them and likes of Bayern and PSG knocked them out last two seasons so really 7th or 8th pick to win it now but depends on draw.

 

[Charrockero]

Bartomeu lost his mind the last 3 years of his mandate, received 222M for Neymar which was a blessing and went crazy. He blew up the salary scale with the renewal of Messi, the renewal of Alba, Busquest, Pique, S.Roberto and the signings and salaries of Coutinho, Dembele, Griezzman
Luckily Barcelona is owned by the fans and they were able to kick him out before he caused more damage.
Now it's time to heal. wounds and preparing for the future. There is a great generation of young people and next year there will be money for a great signing

Bartomeu was a loser from start. He got massively lucky that Luis Enrique's Barça managed to win the Liga + Copa + Champions on the same season there were Board elections.

He signed Arda Turan, Dembele, Coutinho, Griezmann, Kevin Prince Boateng, Andre Gomes, Malcom, Paulinho, Lenglet, Semedo, Trincao, Arthur, Paco Alcacer... None of the ones listed ever worked out. In the best case scenario, some were sold at the same price they were initially bought, but most were massive drops with dissapointing performance in the pitch.

He gave for free Luis Suárez and Rakitic.

But the most important one. He ruined Barcelona while having the club's greatest player ever. He wasn't able to build a proper team around Messi... Messi left Barsa without receiving any penny and with the club in chaos. Laporta and the remaining players have a great great work to do to avoid become a Milan 2.0.

 

[Niemans]

Bartomeu was a loser from start. He got massively lucky that Luis Enrique's Barça managed to win the Liga + Copa + Champions on the same season there were Board elections.

He signed Arda Turan, Dembele, Coutinho, Griezmann, Kevin Prince Boateng, Andre Gomes, Malcom, Paulinho, Lenglet, Semedo, Trincao, Arthur, Paco Alcacer... None of the ones listed ever worked out. In the best case scenario, some were sold at the same price they were initially bought, but most were massive drops with dissapointing performance in the pitch.

He gave for free Luis Suárez and Rakitic.

But the most important one. He ruined Barcelona while having the club's greatest player ever. He wasn't able to build a proper team around Messi... Messi left Barsa without receiving any penny and with the club in chaos. Laporta and the remaining players have a great great work to do to avoid become a Milan 2.0.

Bartomeu in the summer of 2014 signed Luis Enrique, Luis Suárez, Ter Stegen and Rakitic. It was no luck, he did things right.

Sure enough Suarez and Rakitic left practically for free but they were already 33 and 32 years old, many injuries and gigantic salaries. Barcelona had to eliminate high salaries because the effects caused by covid were already beginning to be important.

Milan and also Inter Milan had difficult years because of the debt and above all because they earned little money.
Most of his income was from TV, commercial and stadium revenues were minimal, not even the stadium was owned.
Barcelona year 2019/20 ( Last year of which we have knowledge of the economic balance sheets) was the club with the highest income in the world.

Football Money League by Deloitte

1. - Barcelona - 715M
4 - M. United - 580M
20 - E. Frankfurt - 174M

Milan don't even appear in the top 20.
No, Barcelona will not become a Milan 2.0

 

[giorno]

Bartomeu in the summer of 2014 signed Luis Enrique, Luis Suárez, Ter Stegen and Rakitic. It was no luck, he did things right.

Zubizarreta hired Lucho, signed Suarez, Rakitic and Ter Stegen. Then Nobita pushed him out of the club when it took them 5 months to gel...

The big rakuten sponsorship was brought in by Pique

Most of the good things to happen to barcelona during Nobita's tenure just happened because it's barcelona, or because someone else did it while Nobita happened to be around...

 

[Iker Quesadillas]

Barcelona won more leagues under Bartomeu than Real Madrid have won in Perez's entire second stint at the club.

 

[Pep's Suit]

Why exactly they want Olmo? And spend €60m on him? What's so great about him? He looks decent but like one of those €25m signings from Valencia.

 

[Niemans]

Zubizarreta hired Lucho, signed Suarez, Rakitic and Ter Stegen. Then Nobita pushed him out of the club when it took them 5 months to gel...

The big rakuten sponsorship was brought in by Pique

Most of the good things to happen to barcelona during Nobita's tenure just happened because it's barcelona, or because someone else did it while Nobita happened to be around...

Zubizarreta was hired in in July 2010 and fired in January 2015 after the defeat of Anoeta
Why did that happen? The previous year with Rosell was a disaster with the choice of Tata Martino as coach ( Zubizarreta chose him) ?
There was a war in Barça, roselistas vs laportistas.
After the defeat in Anoeta everything exploded also among other things because L. Enrique and Messi episode, Barcelona was 4 points from the lead and qualified for the knockout stages of the champions league and alive in the Copa del Rey
Bartomeu decided to call elections knowing that he would probably lose them and fired Zubizarreta.
The great signings of Barcelona and the coaches are more choices of the presidents than of the sports directors in Barcelona since always.
Bartomeu is responsible for everything that happens. It is not fair and it is not true that the sporting successes are of the manager and the errors are all Bartomeu's
Laporta's last year as president, Barcelona were ranked 9th among clubs with the most revenues, many millions behind Manchester United.
It is now top-3, last year number 1
Barcelona corporate, bihub, creation of the new sports city etc.
One day I will make a post with the evolution of the club in several aspects since the time of Núñez, it will be interesting

 

[VanDeBank]

Mundo Deportivo reports, Barca gets 40m for Griezmann if he plays 50% of games and Atletico will pay 35m of his yearly salary. It's up to Barca if they want to park him there for another season.
Barca saves a total of 130m, it says.

Incredible deal by Barca, even better than 15m for Firpo. What a bunch of morons Aletico are.
We should look to hire the people that negotiated this deal for Barca.