Barcelona have plans to reduce their wage bill from €560 million to €400 million by the end of the transfer window. The club has been adversely affected by the number of excess players on their books. And as a result, they have not been able to register any new players.
Making a cut of €160 million in wages will not be easy for the club in a single transfer window – especially with no big outgoings confirmed. As a result, several players have been put on the transfer list, including Miralem Pjanic, Martin Braithwaite, Samuel Umtiti, Clement Lenglet, Oscar Mingueza and Riqui Puig.
Barcelona’s plans to reduce wage bill – a huge task for the summer
The Spanish side have already agreed personal terms and formal contracts with Andreas Christensen and Franck Kessie from Chelsea and AC Milan. Both players are expected to join the club as free agents following the expiry of their contracts. But, Barcelona can’t register them due to their bloated wage bill.
The same issue is preventing them from going all-in for Robert Lewandowski, who is only considering Barcelona’s offer as he looks set to leave Bayern Munich.
If Barcelona aren’t able to get rid of their fringe players, they will have to sacrifice a big player like Frenkie De Jong, who could bring in a lot of money. Otherwise, they would have to agree to considerable wage cuts with the other players in their squad to register new players this transfer window.