It is well known that Barcelona have had many great players over the years and also at the moment they have colossal debts.
This bunch of signings over the years show they don’t always get it right on and off the pitch and does help explain some of those debts with huge transfer fees and massive wages.
Their strategy at times especially in recent years looks to be poor. Lets look at some of these players
Players
Philippe Coutinho – €121m from Liverpool
Barcelona pulled in a pile of cash by selling Neymar to PSG for a ridiculous fee – an opportunity to spend wisely and build the team up in various positions and for future domination – nope
Instead they spent a pile of money on Ousmane Dembele and then Philippe Coutinho
He played 76 games in total for Barcelona and scored 17 goals but never quite managed to recreate his Liverpool form, in truth his style of play never really suited Barca – something they didn’t really think about.
He joined Bayern Munich on loan and was just as ineffective but to rub salt in the wounds he played against Barca in the Champions league quarter-final match scoring the last 2 goals on the 85th and 89th minutes to complete an 8–2 rout. he only came on in the second half.
In January 2022, he was allowed to leave on loan to Aston Villa, with Barca still paying a significant portion of his wages. he was eventually signed for a reported £17 million
Ousmane Dembele – €105 million from Borussia Dortmund
Again, the Neymar money had come in – €222 million. Barca wanted to spend, they just wen’t about it the wrong way.
A bit unfortunate this one as he has had a ton of injuries in his time at Barca – some serious. When fit and on form he can be unplayable but its getting both of those together that hasn’t happened often enough.
He has played 151 games in total and scored 32 goals in the space of 6 seasons
Arguably the huge transfer fee has not helped – various signings all failing to make a major impact costing over €100 million each. lets look at yet another one next.
Antoine Griezmann – €120m from Atletico Madrid
Its not a secret that Barcelona’s current debts are ridiculous, lets stop to look at this transfer and the previous 2 – no wages included. Nearly 350 million Euros – simply crazy.
Lets not beat about the bush here – Griezmann was excellent at Real Sociedad and especially at Athletico Madrid. Also being a stand out for the French national team – so again on paper this looked a no-brainer, albeit an expensive signing,
The big issue was he was playing in the same position as Messi – now you aren’t going to move him – so Griezmann had to move and play out of position to accommodate the great man. Again a player that was bought with little thought about the team in general and his role.
He played 102 games in total scoring 35 goals before being loaned out to Athletico where he has so far failed to capture his previous form in his first spell.
Dmytro Chygrynskiy – €25 million from Shakhtar
Hard to believe this was a Pep Guardiola signing.
He signed a five year deal on 31 August 2009 for €25 million and became the first Ukrainian player to ever play for Barcelona. He only managed 12 games and rarely looked like fitting in at Barca
On 6 July 2010, Chyhrynskyi signed a five-year deal to return to his former club Shakhtar Donetsk for a fee of €15 million, making Shakhtar a profit of €10 million – well done to them really.
Alexander Hleb – €15 million from Arsenal
He was never a spectacular player for Arsenal, solid would be the phrase that comes to mind. So it came as a surprise when Barca wen’t for him
He only played 19 games for barca, being loaned out to VfB Stuttgart, Birmingham City and VfL Wolfsburg which were not any more successful, mainly due to injuries.
His contract with Barcelona was cancelled by mutual consent during the January 2012 transfer window
Zlatan Ibrahimovic – €46 million and the exchange of Eto’o to Inter Milan for 20 million
There is no doubt that Zlatan is a great player and a tremendous talent so pairing up with Pep Guardiola in theory should have been a winning combination.
He famously had various disagreements with Pep which he has often mentioned
He scored 16 goals in 29 games, a great return but in a team of superstars where the biggest one was Messi he was moved around in the team to accommodate him and if you know Zlatan and his ego, that doesn’t go down well.
Its the cost of transfer that makes this a bad deal, in particular the exchange of Etoo, who was only rated at 20 million. That was debatable.
He was loaned out to Milan, with the club having the option to purchase him outright for €24 million at the end of the season. A big loss
Keirrison – €14 million from Palmeiras
Wow, where do we start with this one.
Never played for Barca and was loaned out to 5 different clubs including Benfica
In fact that was rumoured to be the reason why he was signed, Barca would sign him, loan him out to a European club. He would star there and they would then sell him for a healthy profit – oops.
In 2014, Keirrison agreed a free transfer with Coritiba – in 10 years he has played 159 games for all clubs.
Henrique – €8 million from Palmeiras
Remember the player above and what happened there, guess what Barca did it again.
He never played for Barca, being immediately loaned out where he did actually play for Bayer Leverkusen, Racing Santander and then Palmeiras
On 2 June 2012, Barcelona cancelled Henrique’s contract, prompting his release. He then joined Palmeiras on a free transfer.
Geovanni – $18 million from Cruzeiro
Once again Barca raided the Brazilian market – with no success
This time the player did actually play for Barca 21 times and scored 1 goal in his first season, in his second season he fell out with the coach and only played 5 times. Then he was loaned to Benfica – them again.
In 2003 Geovanni agreed on terms with Benfica and was signed on a free transfer,
He later turned up in the Premier League and was instrumental in helping Hull stay up after getting promoted.
