Despite announcing the summer acquisitions of Eric Garcia, Sergio Aguero and Memphis Depay, Barcelona will not be able to officially register any of the three players ot new signings until they reduce their wage bill further. A brilliant in-depth analysis has been provided by Zach Lowy of Breaking the Lines, and it goes to show the dire financial problems the club are going through.
Despite letting go of Konrad de la Fuente, Junior Firpo, Jean-Clair Todibo and now Francisco Trincao, Barcelona need to reduce their wage budget considerably to accommodate their new players.
They signed Matheus Fernandes last year, and surprisingly rescinded the contract offered to him on June 29. He was never even officially presented as a Barcelona player, and was sent out on loan to Real Valladolid for the season. After being ‘wrongfully’ dismissed, Fernandes now intends to sue Barcelona.
The Spanish giants also have to pay amortization costs to Liverpool for the transfer of Philippe Coutinho, and also have the same costs for the swap deal involving Pjanic and Arthur. Should Barcelona be able to loan out Samuel Umtiti, along with Pjanic and Coutinho, they will save a total of €64 million in salary payments. But, they can only reinvest 25% of this income according to La Liga rules.
Barcelona's wage bill is 110% of its total income, and in case of exceeding this limit, they can only spend 25% of this income.
— Zach Lowy (@ZachLowy) July 5, 2021
These savings would not be enough to register Lionel Messi, who makes the club more money in commercial income than he earns himself.
The amount they are saving by loaning out the trio will not be enough to sign Messi again, and it certainly won’t be enough to register the three new free agents that Barcelona have recruited. Hence, they will possibly have to make some difficult decisions about senior players like Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets or even youngsters like Ronald Araujo, Riqui Puig or Oscar Mingueza.
