This transfer window poses an extremely demanding challenge to Barcelona in terms of their ability to lure top players to Catalonia amidst financial troubles.
Barcelona currently rely on the club’s history and Joan Laporta‘s promises in their bid to convince players to sign for the Blaugrana this summer.
Robert Lewandowski‘s potential move has already become the story of the summer for Barcelona. The Poland international has already made clear that he wants to join the Catalans, but Bayern Munich are not willing to allow him depart the club.
Some fans may already believe that this deal will not go through and Barcelona will end up trying to find a striker to strengthen their attack in the last days of the transfer window.
Directors Mateu Alemany and Jordi Cruyff may be good at their jobs, but they can’t always perform miracles, especially taking into account the club’s financial struggles.
The potential deals that the club could seal this summer could help Barcelona raise funds to invest in summer signings. However, there are people at the Blaugrana who are already contemplating the scenario that would see a deal with Lewandowski fall through late in the summer.
PSG targets
Players such as Marquinhos, David Luiz, Marco Verratti, Angel Di Maria and Adrien Rabiot all came close to joining Barcelona in the past before Paris Saint-Germain made sure that the Blaugrana will not carry out the moves.
Even Neymar was on the verge of returning to the Camp Nou, but the two clubs failed to strike a deal that would see him make his Barcelona comeback.
Matthijs de Ligt was another player who slipped through the club’s fingers with his move to Juventus. The Bluagrana were willing to bring both De Ligt and Frenkie de Jong to the Camp Nou, but they only managed to sign the Dutch midfielder from Ajax.
Another defender who came close to signing for the LaLiga Santander giants, but didn’t end up making the move, was Athletic Club’s Inigo Martinez. Pressure from within the dressing room prevented the club from bringing in a player who could compete for a spot in the starting line-up with Javier Mascherano.
Strikers
Many strikers have been touted for Barcelona in recent times. Their failure to land Rodrigo Moreno was particularly painful as they had pushed for it until the last moment last summer by way of a loan deal. It didn’t work out and Luuk de Jong ended up arriving, something that many fans didn’t support.
There was a lot of confusion at the time with Lautaro Martinez. The Argentinian even delayed his Inter renewal, knowing that he had a clause that put him within reach of the Blaugrana, but they never went all out for him.
With all these precedents, it is inevitable that the Lewandowski saga could end badly. The story has all the ingredients of a big flop: a great player who is wanted by Barcelona but belonging to a massive club who don’t want to sell. Let’s see how it ends.
Marca
