Barcelona is financially on the ground, but is nevertheless busy with winter reinforcements. According to various Spanish media, the Catalans have reached a personal agreement with Ferran Torres, it was announced on Friday. Barca expected according to Sport 40 million euros to take the 21-year-old right attacker away from Manchester City. The Spanish top club wants to finance that through deferred payment and hopes for leniency from City.
Barca cannot spend euros on transfers in January unless players are sold, technical director Mateu Alemany said at Dani Alves’ presentation this month. Nevertheless, the Catalans in Spain are fully linked to Ferran, while in Germany there are persistent rumors about interest in Karim Adeyemi of Red Bull Salzburg. In both cases, Barcelona would think of an amount of 40 million euros.
Sport reiterates that the club is not allowed to spend a cent at this time. However, it is not the case that there is no money in cash, because the club took out a loan of up to 1.5 billion euros with Goldman Sachs. Due to the strict rules in LaLiga, Barça cannot spend that money on new players, but according to the Catalan sports newspaper, the club could still sign new players through deferred payments. This could also be expressed in the form of rent with a mandatory option to purchase. The question is whether Manchester City or Red Bull Salzburg is waiting for a player sale for which part of the transfer fee will not be received until July 1 at the earliest.
From the new season, Barcelona expects to have some budget again. The contracts of Sergi Roberto and Ousmane Dembélé expire on 1 July; any departure of those players would create space. Barcelona would prefer to say goodbye to Philippe Coutinho and Samuel Umtiti during the winter break, but so far no club has reported to take over the big earners. Coutinho and Umtiti are fixed until mid-2023 and with their salary they form a block to Barça’s leg for the time being.
Meanwhile, Barça is trying to keep contacts with Ferran warm, it sounds like. The Spanish international would like to play in the blaugrana play, but has been told that a winter transfer is difficult. Barca themselves do not want to go beyond 40 million euros, while City are thinking of 60 million euros. Ferran was taken away from Valencia by City in the summer of 2020, which received a fixed fee of EUR 25 million. He stands on 43 appearances for City, in which he produced 16 goals and 2 assists.