Buyer’s Remorse For FC Barcelona After Summer Of Transfer Gambles

You have to wonder how president FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta feels about his summer activities.

With the club staring down the barrel of an exit from the Champions League thoughts quickly turn to his decision to sell off a portion of its future domestic TV revenue for half a billion dollars, followed by stakes in its merchandise and content creation operations.

At the time, the thinking for the president was simple; he needed to raise cash to lift the club out of its rut.

“We’ve had to move fast,” Laporta said in the summer, “the TV rights were sold, 25 percent of them, and that has added important revenue.

“The club is on the path to being sound financially. The club is better with the money that’s come in.”

But Laporta wasn’t simply bringing in more capital to steady the ship, he was raising funds to speculate.

Laporta put it slightly differently, signing players like 34-year-old Robert Lewandoski would create a “virtuous cycle” where the acquisitions produced the goods on the pitch and drove an increase in revenue that more than compensated, he said.

According to the two-time president, there was no other way, “I’m not a gambler,” he told The New York TimesNYT
. “I take calculated risks.”

The fear is what lies on the other side of that “risk,” because, as Laporta himself has admitted, the team needs to boost organic revenue.

“We have to work harder to increase our earnings, not from selling shares but not by profiting through them,” Laporta has confessed previously.

Domestically, the signings of Lewandowski, Jules Kounde and Raphinha are so far driving a respectable rather than blistering performance.

But the Champions League has not gone to plan at all. A disappointing performance in a tough group exposed the limitations in coach Xavi’s experience and showed how far former greats Gerrard Pique and Sergio Busquets have fallen.

More worrying was the Barcelona coach blaming misfortune for Barcelona’s European woes.

“Although we are in a very uncomfortable situation. In football, sometimes the one who deserved it doesn’t always win,” Xavi said.

“Hope is the last thing to be lost. The misfortune is that we aren’t dependent on ourselves anymore. The Champions League has been cruel to us this year.”

Could it be Xavi?

The lack of substantial improvement in performance puts Laporta in an interesting position.

Xavi can hardly accuse Barcelona of not backing him, he may have wanted Cesar Azpilicueta at right back and Bernardo Silva in midfield, but he got pretty much everything else he asked for.

But the underperformance has left Laporta preaching some interesting messages for a man who described winning as a “requirement” at Barcelona.

“I would tell the fans to keep believing,” he said several weeks back, “we have a very good team that has to give us joy. They have to support Xavi, and we will give that support to him.

“Xavi has shown that he is a man who knows the club and the system perfectly, apart from being an excellent person. Things will get better, and he will give us many successes.

“We always talk. After the game, I have a habit of talking to him. [After its 3-3 draw vs Inter which made Champions League elimination almost inevitable] I saw him sad and hurt. Xavi has a virtue that no one I’ve met has — he always sees the positive side. It’s something I’ve always liked.

“I told him to move forward, not to think about the Champions League and focus on LaLiga.”

The cost of Barcelona’s underperformance

On the scale to which Barcelona is operating the financial rewards for Champions League progression are relatively modest. It would have earned around $10 million for each round progressed, which if you go all the way comes to a pretty handy $50 million.

But more so than the immediate financial gains is the impact of this failure on Laporta’s virtuous cycle, for that to work you need a winning team, which currently Barcelona doesn’t.

Even winning it was unrealistic this year, a run to the semi-finals would have been a validation of the investment and demonstrated progress.

Now because of that spending, Xavi doesn’t have the luxury of time, the side needs to do better.

Unsurprisingly, given the number of transfers he’s already overseen, Laporta mentioned bringing in new faces when discussing how Barca might improve.

“The project continues,” he said in a direct address to Barca fans, “this team is just starting. There are a series of adjustments to be made that will make it even better.

“We are always discussing ways to improve with the technical and coaching staff, and there’s the winter transfer market on the way soon. We have a strong team but there’s room for improvements.”

Not everyone has the optimism Xavi and Laporta possess.

“If things do not work out,” Victor Font told The New York Times, “we will be hitting a wall.”