FC Barcelona Have Already Made Their First Big Signing Of The Summer

FC Barcelona have already made their first big signing of the summer, if reports from the likes of SPORT and Mundo Deportivo are accurate.

Barca and their fans are currently celebrating a first La Liga title in four years and a maiden Spanish top flight crown under head coach Xavi Hernandez after a 4-2 win at Espanyol on Sunday finished off the job with four matchdays to spare.

Eventually, however, president Joan Laporta and his board, plus Culers, would wake up to the club’s harsh economic reality which sees them needing to shed €200 million ($216 million) from the wage bill ahead of next season if they wish to make new signings and registere new contracts.

In order for this to be done, Barca must make several player sales, reduce salaries and navigate complicated Financial Fair Play limits.

And already, on May 2, they knew that they would lose their director of football Mateu Alemany who took care of issues related to these areas to great effect in 2022.

On this date, it was announced that Alemany would depart on June 30 despite having a contract until 2024.

According to The Athletic, he would take up a new role at Aston Villa in the Premier
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League leaving Barca fans dejected about what lies ahead in the transfer market despite an alleged agreement to help out until deadline day at Camp Nou even if over the water in Birmingham.

A further blow was struck on Tuesday when sporting director Jordi Cruyff’s departure was also announced. Just 24 hours later, however, Barca received a huge boost when Catalan media reported that Alemany had performed a shock U-turn and had offered his continuation which Laporta subsequently accepted.

No official announcement has been made on the matter, but reports are highly likely to be accurate.

In this case, we can say that Barca have effectively already made their first big signing of the summer in re-securing one of the most sought-after directors in the sport in Alemany, who has been offered a fresh contract until 2026 according to Gerard Romero.

Just a few days ago, Alemany teased himself that this summer “is going to be very interesting”.

And now that he is presumably back behind the wheel moving forward, huge things could await the Blaugrana in the transfer market with Lionel Messi’s potential return increasingly possible.

Furthermore, Alemany will also get rid of the dead wood that Barca need to offload which will additionally facilitate the arrival of fresh faces.