Cash-Strapped FC Barcelona Will Try To Sell Before Buying Six New Players

Cash-strapped due to the pandemic and its impact on revenue, FC Barcelona have had to put plans to land their top two transfer targets on ice.

On Sunday branding any move for Neymar “unfeasible”, president Josep Bartomeu revealed in the same interview with SPORT that negotiations for Inter Milan striker Lautaro Martinez had come to a grinding halt.

“The situation is what it is: the club lost €200mn between March and June. And in the 2020/2021 season, we expected to raise €1.1 billion [in revenue], but we will surely have 30 percent less,” said Bartomeu more specifically, with regards to the numbers. “If the pandemic situation does not improve, there will be no crowd [at the games], no museum, no stores, and money will continue to be lost. It forces us to be very rigorous in management: we must review which investments are essential and which can wait. You have to adapt,” he explained.

And according to the same publication on Tuesday morning, Barça will do just that by trying to offload more players and sign a “minimum” of a further six to join the likes of Pedri, Francisco Trincao, Matheus Fernandes and Miralem Pjanic.

Speaking of Pjanic, he was of course involved in a deal that saw Arthur offloaded to Juventus for a fee of €72mn, yet the outlay on the Bosnian means that the Blaugrana will only be left with a profit of around €10mn.

Over at rival sports daily Mundo Deportivo, however, it has been claimed this morning that Martin Braithwaite could already be sold to West Ham for €20mn, which represents a small profit of €2mn considering what the Catalans paid to trigger his release clause at Leganes in February.

The Premier League
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is considered Barcelona’s best source of potential income, with several of its outfits vying for the services of misfit Philippe Coutinho. Arsenal lead the pack, but the player himself has not ruled out the possibility of trying to have a second go of it at the Camp Nou.

Elsewhere in England’s top flight, though, it is believed that suitors could also be found for Rafinha and Jean-Clair Todibo.

Junior Firpo was earmarked for a potential Martinez swap, and could still be destined for the Serie A even if that doesn’t pull off. Also possibly heading to Italy, Samuel Umtiti is fancied by “several” clubs on loan but is dragging his heels while adamant on staying put.

Ivan Rakitic keen on a return to Sevilla where he was purchased from in 2014, Nelson Semedo and Ousmane Dembele are proving difficult to shift.

The Portuguese on the verge of signing a new deal but also linked to Manchester City, his French junior could bring in as much as €90mn yet the likes of PSG are turned off by his lengthy history of injures.