After a few days of Barcelona fluffing their feathers over recent financial results, a slight scratch beneath the surface shows that everything isn’t well.
Philippe Coutinho has been used as an example by Barcelona to demonstrate their good finanxcial situation, and it’s been claimed the club can easily afford to sign him from Liverpool in January.
The wiseness of such comments was questioned immediately, but now also the practicalities of the big Liverpool transfer are being doubted.
Mundo Deportivo, a Catalan newspaper… so Barcelona leaning, point out that wages at the club are a shocking 84% of income. That’s a long way from what would be considered a safe level, and is reckless for Barca.
It’s explained the entire market knows Barcelona need to reduce this percentage before making any further big signings, Coutinho or anyone else. There’s a clear need to sell, and with that being out in the open, clubs aren’t offering the fees which Barcelona hope for.
Then there’s debt, the club’s debt is predicted to rise to €300m, and that’s a big problem for stadium development.Mundo Deportivo say previous Barcelona finance chiefs have made it clear, ‘it’s impossible to assume the remodelling of the Camp Nou with a net debt exceeding €200m.’
A series of poor buys – ‘Arda, Vermaelen, Alcácer and André Gomes have not been worth the investment made. Nowhere near.’ – leave Barcelona in a pickle.
They need to sell, there’s not a great deal of interest in buying at a good price, but any Coutinho January attempt looks irresponsible unless there are serious sales first.
