One month to sell for € 69.5M

One of the messages that became clearer in the last assembly of Barcelona delegates was the one sent by then treasurer Enrique Tombas: “Player sales are a priority for the entity.” To balance a budget as ambitious as the one approved (1,047 million), it was essential to sell footballers. In the budget approved by the partners it was stated that 124 million had to be raised for this concept before June 30. In the absence of 30 days to meet the deadline, Barça is 69.5 million from the goal.

In the income column of the Barça balance of this season they appear in the chapter of sales by players 80.5 million. An amount that made the Barcelona leaders foresee that the objectives could be easily met. But the question is more complicated than adding the amounts that are entered. In terms of balance, you have to take into account what was paid by the players and the years they had been with the club. This is amortization. And in this chapter Barça has not been fine and has given up on players who have spent a short time, so that the amortization of the signing is scarce. As an example, the case of Malcom, which was only one season.

Barça closed the winter market by selling to Carles Pérez to Roma for 11 million euros in an operation that came to add to the sale of Malcom to Zenit (40 million), André Gomes to Everton (28 million), Marqués to Juventus (8.5) and Marc Cardona to Osasuna (1,5). In other words, 80.5 million had been raised and the season in this regard seemed well underway.But taking into account amortizations, for accounting purposes these sales only reflect a positive balance of 46 million, which can rise to 45.5 if all the variables were met.

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However, the health crisis due to the coronavirus has upset everything. Not so much in the intentions to buy from the teams that want Barcelona players as in the quantities and time management. In other words, Barça continue to trust that, for example, Rafinha and Cucurella will be transferred, but perhaps not because of the amounts intended.

Celta is very interested in taking over Rafinha, but his spending limit is at most 15 millionYes, a figure that is far from the value that Barça wants to give the player as long as he includes him in an operation with another team. About Cucurella, it seems clear that Getafe is going to exercise its right to purchase and there the debate opens if they transfer it to any of the Premier teams that want it (offers are not lacking) or they keep it. If they opted for the first option, Barça would keep a percentage of that sale.

The philosophy of Barcelona in the concept of sales has changed, CEO Grascar Grau already stated in his first assembly of delegates that “” we do not hide, there will be sales, but not of key players “ and the vice president Jordi Cardoner He finished off the argument in an interview in Mundo Deportivo in which he stated that “We are no longer a finalist club, where the players finish, there has to be rotation. Before, we gave away the players. ” The idea of ​​the meeting is to collect by players under the concept that “playing at Barça adds value” and in fact, last year Barça managed to enter 134 million for player sales, something that was not usual except for the Neymar anomaly.

One of the reasons why Barcelona was so interested In the Arthur-Pjanic exchange, beyond sports issues, this operation solved this chapter of the long budget. Arthur, valued at 60 million, was the piece that allowed the entity's numbers to breathe that already assumes that it will not be able to meet the budget approved by the assembly.