At midnight on Thursday night, as the summer transfer window closed, FC Barcelona ended one of its most frantic player-signing periods of recent times. The work was titanic, since without money in the bank and with a wage bill that had been skyrocketing for years, football director Mateu Alemany and his team had to rebuild a squad that last season showed that it needed a revolution to be competitive again. Finally, thanks to the club's now-famous financing levers and commendable work, Barça has ended the market with a sense of having achieved something the impossible: building a sense of hope and belief once again among the fans. The team's results will dictate the final verdict, but on paper Xavi Hernández has a squad with options to fight for all the titles. It is a team that seemed impossible just a few weeks ago.
Players who have entered the Barça squad in the 2022 summer transfer market / Graphic: Maria López Moya
Barça has invested a total of 153 million euros to secure seven signings, those of Lewandowski, Raphinha, Koundé, Marcos Alonso, Kessié, Christensen and Héctor Bellerín. In return, the Barça club said goodbye to Coutinho, Trincao, Mingueza, Riqui Puig, Neto, Dani Alves, Dest, Lenglet, Abde, Coll, Braithwaite and Aubameyang. In addition, Adama Traoré and Luuk de Jong, who had played at Camp Nou on loan, were returned to Wolves and Sevilla, respectively, after failing to convince Xavi Hernández. Barça has only invested 38 million in transfers, but it has achieved the main objective, to cut the wage bill of the squad, in order to make space for signings and contract renewals - Sergi Roberto and Dembélé - and to become more sustainable with an eye on future transfer markets.
A wild Thursday at Can Barça
The final day before the closing of the summer transfer window promised to be full of excitement for Barça fans and so it was. The day began with the news that Jordi Alba had refused to go on loan to Inter Milan, although they had reached an agreement with Barça. Then, while representatives entered and left the offices of the club's Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper, operations were announced, the departures of Dest to Milan, Abde to Osasuna, Aubameyang to Chelsea, and Braithwaite with his contract ended. Then came the signings of Marcos Alonso, part of the Aubameyang operation, and Héctor Bellerín, the chosen player to strengthen the right-back position.
Those who have left Barça in the summer transfer window 2022 / Graphic: Maria López Moya
Meanwhile, Jijantes FC announced that they had spoken to club president Joan Laporta, who had let it slip that there could be one final surprise. For this, Barça needed to make one more sale, as there was no salary margin left. A frenzy of rumours has then begun, from Álvaro Morata, of Atlético de Madrid, to Nabil Fekir, of Betis, through Bernardo Silva, who announced on Wednesday that he was still at Manchester City after not having received any offers from the Spanish Lliga. Finally, the final departure was a bridge too far for Barça, and since no-one went out the door, there was no room for anyone to come in either.
The ones that got away
Among the extensive list of names that were mentioned throughout the summer to strengthen Barça, there are two that were very close to the Camp Nou but could not be finalized due to the high tempo of operations and the salary limits for registering signings. The first was César Azpilicueta, who for weeks awaited the word from Barça, with whom he had an initial accord. The Chelsea captain, however, ended up renewing his contract at Stamford Bridge, fearing that his ticket to the Camp Nou might not in the end arrive.
The other big name in the air was that of Bernardo Silva, who has never hidden his predilection for signing with Barça. The Barcelona club knew it, as did Manchester City, which would have allowed him to leave. The problem was that Barça lacked the time to generate enough margin in its wage bill, while City, seeing that they could not sign a replacement for the Portuguese midfielder, ended up closing the door on him. Bernardo Silva would have been the icing on the cake for a squad that, even without him, aspires to to compete for all the titles: the goal that Barça's sporting management set when planning began.