Joan Laporta was in a bullish mood, which she is on most days, but especially on days like these. It was the first day of the rest of his life, a sunny morning in the city. There were 13,513 people in the stands at Camp Nou, with optimism returning. On the pitch below them, the president of Barcelona, who had started singing for the last time featuring Dani Alves and Xavi Hernández, was ready to take on the world. Or so he said.
It was a great issue. Ferran Torres had just joined Barcelona for a €55m transfer fee as well as a €10m add-on. Aged 21 and long seen as the country's outstanding player in his age group, he hails from Manchester City, no less. Destined, some said, to lead Spain's forward line for the next decade, Torres has already scored 12 international goals, including a hat-trick against Germany, which is better than a goal in every other game. His salary is understood to be structured to reach the region of €12.5m a year.
It was not the first major signing of Laporta's second spell at the club, but it did. And it won't be the last.
That's what Laporta said anyway.
If Torres' arrival suggested a change, a signing they might be really excited about - a pretty good player they were persuaded to join and whom you could still see in 10 years' time. - So the words of Laporta screamed about it. So much so that when asked about the arrival that will be transformative, everyone wants the signers to see us and guarantee that everyone did the same, he doesn't hold back. Could Erling Haaland join in as well? "Everything is possible," Laporta said.
If this sounds a bit odd, he didn't say no, which was completely intentional. What he said was this: "We are still players in the market. Everyone was preparing better because we are back, and with a desire to do good things. We have got our position back. Barcelona's resurgence It's a reality."
It may depend on how you define "resurrection" when it becomes a reality.
By now you know all of this, so let's get over it quickly: Barcelona is in debt over €1.35 billion; They lost €481m last year alone; He was forced to let Lionel Messi go and go free; And his salary-cap spot this season, his budget is, in other words, €97.7m. It is one-eighth the size of Real Madrid and less than Real Sociedad, Athletic Club and Villarreal. Let's not even look at England, where a team like Watford has so much power. And so the inevitable, recurring question was asked: How? How could they have signed Hollande?
Really, no matter Haaland, how could they sign Torres?
The short answer is: they can't. Not necessary. Not now.
Everything is possible, Laporta said, but not everything is possible at the moment. And that includes registering Torres. It should be in place by Sunday, said the club's director of football, Matu Alemani. Torres has tested positive for COVID-19 and is recovering from an injury, so it may not need to happen that fast, but either way the answer is: soon. At least that's what they hope for. And have a plan. The problem is there is a terrible habit of not delivering on hopes and the best-laid plans of Gang After Ugly and all that.
Had Torres been fit and had a league match tomorrow, Barcelona would not have been able to play with him. And so, to return to the question: How did Barcelona manage to sign Ferran Torres?
The answer has two parts. The first is the cost of self-signing, and this is easily explained. Barcelona will not pay more fees, salaries are spread across his contract, and the club has taken a €600m loan from Goldman Sachs, the same bank that will provide an additional €1.5bn for the redevelopment of Barcelona's new one. Stadium.
So where does the money come from? He is there. In terms of football, meanwhile, he believes it is a sign that he really cannot afford not to do so, even though his value has effectively doubled since moving to England.
That's the first part - actually signing it - and it's quite simple. The second part - registering him so he can actually play - is the league's salary limit criteria.
To review, there are two different things, conceptually and practically: having the money to do it, and meeting the criteria of being able to do it now. The pay range part is more complicated -- at some levels, anyway. On others, it's too simple and too harsh: if you don't follow the rules, you won't be able to register your player. End of story This is an automated system, and the button you want to click will not be clickable.
Barcelona's allowed salary range is €97.7m which is calculated based on what they spend and generate. It's not like they're right on the border; With the actual amount spent on salaries in excess of €400m, they are miles away from it. This leads people to suggest that the rules are meaningless as they lament another big club ignoring financial fair play. The questions are inevitable: what's the point if they can still sign players? What if they can exceed four times their permissible wage limit with no tangible effect?
First, it is not without consequences; These are not rules that are simply ignored and not enforced, nor are financial difficulties completely ignored for long periods of time. Not now, anyway. Over the summer, you may remember, they lost the best player in their entire history - someone named Lionel Messi - for free. Whatever other elements were going on, everyone can certainly agree that this is quite a big impact. Antoine Griezmann also went free. (For now, at least: the €40m buyout clause applies a year.) The summer before, Luis Suarez went free - and won the league at Atlético Madrid. Gerard Pique and Sergio Busquets took pay cuts. Without the drop of the pick, Memphis Depay would not be able to play the opening game of the 2021-22 season.
The boundaries also change with each season. Last year, Barcelona's limit was €382 million, and next year, with the impact of the pandemic easing, it is likely to climb again, although it is inconceivable that this will reach the level of their actual spending on salaries. Unless this decline continues. (While you can theoretically just sit on one squad and not change anything, any new contract will break those rules—in other words, you can't renew one—and don't invest in anything. To be able to, you have to comply with the salary limit.) In Barcelona's case, that means bringing the total to just under €97.7m.
This last bit is impossible. You can't even give some players your paychecks as an excuse - if they don't want to go then don't. Unilateral termination risks a court case, the cost of which may exceed it. Because of that, and because of the pandemic and its impact on those limits, creating a kind of negative equity in which you can't even pay for the squad by getting rid of the entire squad is another way. You can exceed the limit and still invest, but only with proof that you are addressing the shortfall and how much you invest is limited to a 1:4 ratio. That is to say, for every €1 a club wants to invest in their squad, they have to make €4 in savings.
Normally, a combination of savings goes toward any investment, but to put it very simply: if you exceed your limit, you can't sign a player to €1m per year by getting rid of a player. can do. €1m per year, keeping the level the same; You have to get rid of a player at €4m per year. If it's a very expensive player, the margin increases: If you can move on to a player that accounts for more than 5% of your limit, you can reinvest in a 1 to 2 ratio, which Meaning that €10m player gives €5m margin.
Barcelona currently have no margin to register Torres, and finding it is their immediate task. (Long-term plans are a different issue, which is why some costs are deferred until then: by the summer, €40m could be inbound for Griezmann, for example, and other necessary sales could be possible. ) It's not easy. , but neither is it impossible. While Laporta was his usual spirited and spirited self, Alemani, his director of football, was calm, clear and concise – it is that personality, as well as his ability, that exudes optimism that this might just work.
Alemanni had already said that the players would have to leave before anyone could come. He had signed Torres despite no one knowing till now. "The reality is that when we signed Ferran, we knew we had no margin with the salary range," he admitted on Monday. "We made an exception with Ferran because it was worth it. We accept that and we're working on different approaches."
"If we can generate 'fair play' [margin], we'll decide whether there are other signatures; [the latter] will depend on the exit," Alemani said. For all the desire to seek out other arrivals – most prominent among them Alvaro Morata – registering a player they have actually signed has to come first. If they succeed in doing so, only then will they see other possible signals.
Those avenues are varied, creative, and often time-sensitive. Some walk more willingly than others. In many cases, the solutions are ultra short-term and mean relocation costs down the road at a time, they hope, when they will become easier to assimilate and fit within financial regulations – a time when money may come. At that point, some of the plans made this summer will be selected separately: Memphis Depay, Sergino Dest and Luc de Jong are all set to depart within a year of players arriving, itself a sign that some solutions will solve anything. do not. And so they work, hands partly tied.
A useful indication of how good the margins are, and how delicately balanced it all is, is shown by the fact that Joseph Demir is no longer playing the game – if he makes another appearance, Barcelona will have a €10m buyout option. will have to be used. — and even more so explicitly by a comment made by Xavi Hernandez this week.
Amid talks over a new contract for Ousmane Dembele, the Barcelona manager was asked his opinion. He replied that the Frenchman was important, a player he wanted to continue at the club. This was nothing new – he has previously said that Dembele may be the world's best in his position – but what was new was how important it was, and why. "If Osman renews, it will allow us to sign one or two," he said.
Wait a moment and read it again. It's not like there won't be a saving when Dembele is gone - which it certainly will be - but the savings will be if he stays. At least in the short term. In other words, Barcelona's plan - well, their offer - involves reducing his salary or at least spreading what he's earning over the coming years, loading some of it into the back end of his contract. In simple words, it means this: they depend on it. Simply put, it appears they have the upper hand.
Dembele hasn't consented to the renewal yet, and it's starting to look like he can't. The demands are bigger than the offers, and patience is running out. So it's time. "We've been talking to his agent for five months," Alemanni admitted, the disappointment palpable. "We've been very patient. They knew we wanted him to stay and they had our offer. We can't delay any longer. We're waiting for a definitive answer so that we can make a decision that's up to the club. be convenient."
There have been suggestions that he will be banished to the stands, perhaps even charged for, forcing him to renew or leave, but for Dembele, there is nothing to be gained by leaving now, which brings us back. Is. Familiar places: Savings can be made, but they are not easy.
Sergio Aguero's retirement has allowed Dani Alves to register, for example, that renewing Sergi Roberto to defer some of his salary is another option showing how urgent Barcelona's issues are. As Alemany said, it depends on the players who leave, but the fact that it's not easy has been demonstrated time and again before. Sell the expensive player, people say. Go on, try again. Samuel Umtiti is in no hurry to leave. They have been trying to sell Philippe Coutinho for two years. As the World Cup draws to a close, and yet another manager sees little room for him, it appears he may be ready to leave.
“We are working on it, and we are confident that we will be able to register [Torres] before Sunday,” Alemanni said. There is a player and there is a plan. Something has to happen, and soon, or the person who actually signed, the person whose arrival announced their return, won't really be able to get a foothold on the pitch.
"I'm calm; I know I'll be able to register," Ferran said.