I hope we get raphinha, I don't particularity care if we aren't his first choice. My main question is at the moment why anybody would want to a club that doesn't even pay its players, surely the agent of these players should be pushing them to join a team that's actually financially stable.

Barca apparently have had 3rd bid accepted 

41 minutes ago, Chelsbear said:

Barca apparently have had 3rd bid accepted 

Also apparently close to resigning Demebele, in talks to sign Bernando Silva, Lewa, Alonso, Dave etc and yet they are a billion in debt and owe players back pay, De Jong alone owed 17million...

I don’t get it either. Surely they are due for an investigation? 
 

Gnabry or bust I suppose. 

30 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

I don’t get it either. Surely they are due for an investigation? 
 

Gnabry or bust I suppose. 

Give it time, Barca will sign him too am sure...

Here’s a good article explaining the Barca financial situation. The short answer is no one understands how they expect to register these players.

The long answer is that they have two ways of signing players: first, they can raise enough revenue (including player sales and those notorious levers) and/or cut costs (e.g., player wages) to become a net neutral team under La Liga’s salary/FFP system. The total value of combined new revenue and cost savings needed to become net neutral is roughly €700 million: 

Quote

Taking Barcelona's salary limit at €-144m [yea, that’s NEGATIVE €144 million] and their actual salary mass at €560m (they aim to reduce it to €400m), they would need to hit €704m to generate a positive balance. If they could make €600m, the lower end of the initial predictions, they would fall short. If they made €800m, the upper end of early predictions and unlikely to be the case, they would have around €96m surplus, which could be invested.

The optimistic estimates for the levers are below that €700m number, and then even if they get to neutral, they still need to cut €1 in costs (or raise another €1 in new revenue) for each €1 they spend. 

The other way they can register players is to take advantage of a La Liga loop hole they put in place for dealing with reduced COVID revenue, which allows for €1 in new spending for every €4 in new revenue or cut costs. So if they go that route, raising €400 million via levers will allow them to spend €100 millions. Maybe they’ll go that route and use standard FFP accounting loopholes (e.g., amortizing the cost of player purchases over the life of the contracts) to register all these players, but then they’re still in the same position next year, with less to sell off, and with reduced revenue going forward since these levers are just advances of future television and merchandise revenues. 

Edited July 10, 20223 yr by Cap

Daily fail are going with the 'exclusive' he's joining Barca storyline.

Surely Barcelona can't do every bit of business they're linked with, when they're scraping down the back of the sofa to even pay their players a wage?!

6 hours ago, Cap said:

Here’s a good article explaining the Barca financial situation. The short answer is no one understands how they expect to register these players.

The long answer is that they have two ways of signing players: first, they can raise enough revenue (including player sales and those notorious levers) and/or cut costs (e.g., player wages) to become a net neutral team under La Liga’s salary/FFP system. The total value of combined new revenue and cost savings needed to become net neutral is roughly €700 million: 

The optimistic estimates for the levers are below that €700m number, and then even if they get to neutral, they still need to cut €1 in costs (or raise another €1 in new revenue) for each €1 they spend. 

The other way they can register players is to take advantage of a La Liga loop hole they put in place for dealing with reduced COVID revenue, which allows for €1 in new spending for every €4 in new revenue or cut costs. So if they go that route, raising €400 million via levers will allow them to spend €100 millions. Maybe they’ll go that route and use standard FFP accounting loopholes (e.g., amortizing the cost of player purchases over the life of the contracts) to register all these players, but then they’re still in the same position next year, with less to sell off, and with reduced revenue going forward since these levers are just advances of future television and merchandise revenues. 

Of course they can sign everyone when they make absurd contracts like deferring wages on different years of the contracts and etc. 

Barcelona FC is a huge financial crisis just waiting to happen.

Laporta recently admitted that the club's debt is still GROWING and  Barca now has a burden of circa €1.46 billion worth of debt and have a net "worth" of negative, yes that is MINUS €451m. On paper, it is utterly worthless.  The Club is trading insolvently. If this was in the UK, this is illegal and they would already have been deducted points, relegated or worse. But in Spain, as the "Darlings" of La Liga, They will probably be given a few extra points as a bit of a bonus !! 

The other litmus test of any business is the percentage of turnover that is spent on gross wages. Barcelona have been spending 102% of their total income on player wages, meaning their wage bill alone, without any other running costs,  puts them in a loss situation. Their budget for this year is €124 million LOSS !!

And yet, they can still "buy" players, defer wages, borrow yet more money and lose even more, without any penalty ?? La Liga are petrified and UEFA are derelict in their financial duty, by allowing this to happen.

42 minutes ago, coombsie said:

Barcelona FC is a huge financial crisis just waiting to happen.

Laporta recently admitted that the club's debt is still GROWING and  Barca now has a burden of circa €1.46 billion worth of debt and have a net "worth" of negative, yes that is MINUS €451m. On paper, it is utterly worthless.  The Club is trading insolvently. If this was in the UK, this is illegal and they would already have been deducted points, relegated or worse. But in Spain, as the "Darlings" of La Liga, They will probably be given a few extra points as a bit of a bonus !! 

The other litmus test of any business is the percentage of turnover that is spent on gross wages. Barcelona have been spending 102% of their total income on player wages, meaning their wage bill alone, without any other running costs,  puts them in a loss situation. Their budget for this year is €124 million LOSS !!

And yet, they can still "buy" players, defer wages, borrow yet more money and lose even more, without any penalty ?? La Liga are petrified and UEFA are derelict in their financial duty, by allowing this to happen.

Spot on!

This is the summer when FFP truly died.

It’s now virtually impossible for UEFA to bring any case against any team, including even City or PSG without the counter argument “you didn’t do anything about Barcelona in 2022 therefore your case against us is frivolous”

Just now, 2211 said:

Spot on!

This is the summer when FFP truly died.

It’s now virtually impossible for UEFA to bring any case against any team, including even City or PSG without the counter argument “you didn’t do anything about Barcelona in 2022 therefore your case against us is frivolous”

I expect that UEFA will still find a reason to Investigate Chelsea again any time soon.

Who do we go for then if this one is dead? There is a dearth of top quality RW in world football, and clubs are demanding ridiculous fees for the ones available (Ajax demanding €60m for Antony).

The ones that come to mind are Moussa Diaby (linked to Newcastle), Pote at Sporting and my preference Olise if we can be patient.

What about that Antony fella? 😄

The thing is that James is kinda our unofficial RW to some extent - at least regarding scorers. I'm not 100% sure I'd like to see James play RB in a 433 (for example) playing much more defensively with a true RW in front of him, yet most likely no elite RW. And if we keep the 343 we need a RW that supplements James' runs and isn't occupying the same spaces. That's what I though was great about the Raphinha signing who I imagined can partially switch roles with James situationally - mybe a reason he rather goes to Barca. 😄

Edited July 11, 20223 yr by weetee

I always preferred CHO on the right as his goal output is not high enough cutting in from the left. Still leaves us light, but CHO and James for the right hand side?

43 minutes ago, PhilH930 said:

I always preferred CHO on the right as his goal output is not high enough cutting in from the left. Still leaves us light, but CHO and James for the right hand side?

Like you I think CHO could do a job on the right and could even swap sides with Sterling during a match if they ain’t getting any joy, if they started together in the same match of course.

He said he’s got his speed and strength back now finally after his injury, so unless a better option presents itself in the market for that right side it could be worth giving CHO a try perhaps.

I personally feel this could be a make or break year for him.

4 hours ago, ducavis said:

Who do we go for then if this one is dead? There is a dearth of top quality RW in world football, and clubs are demanding ridiculous fees for the ones available (Ajax demanding €60m for Antony).

The ones that come to mind are Moussa Diaby (linked to Newcastle), Pote at Sporting and my preference Olise if we can be patient.

I could still see us going for Cornet. He can play wing back and showed last season that he can weigh in with a decent amount of goals.

2 hours ago, 2211 said:

I personally feel this could be a make or break year for him.

Isn't it what we say about CHO before every season? When will people finally take off their blue tinted glasses and admit that he's simply not good enough?

19 minutes ago, abramovich said:

Isn't it what we say about CHO before every season? When will people finally take off their blue tinted glasses and admit that he's simply not good enough?

And last season he was our best attacker during our best run of the season, then after being unfairly dropped made big impacts against Villa, Spurs and Palmerias before his injury. He finished the campaign 3rd highest open play big chance and key pass creator in the entire league.

11 minutes ago, Argo said:

And last season he was our best attacker during our best run of the season, then after being unfairly dropped made big impacts against Villa, Spurs and Palmerias before his injury. He finished the campaign 3rd highest open play big chance and key pass creator in the entire league.

Are you sure? 

7 minutes ago, abramovich said:

Are you sure? 

Sorry, per 90.

 

Edited July 11, 20223 yr by Argo

with his new haircut he looks really up for business 

Looks like (similar of Mount) CHO as also bulked up a fair bit since last season. Hopefully he is physically stronger and that will add to his game. He has been very open about some of the issues he had last season (physical and pyschological) and seems hopeful that he can start fresh this season.

18 hours ago, Cap said:

Here’s a good article explaining the Barca financial situation. The short answer is no one understands how they expect to register these players.

The long answer is that they have two ways of signing players: first, they can raise enough revenue (including player sales and those notorious levers) and/or cut costs (e.g., player wages) to become a net neutral team under La Liga’s salary/FFP system. The total value of combined new revenue and cost savings needed to become net neutral is roughly €700 million: 

The optimistic estimates for the levers are below that €700m number, and then even if they get to neutral, they still need to cut €1 in costs (or raise another €1 in new revenue) for each €1 they spend. 

The other way they can register players is to take advantage of a La Liga loop hole they put in place for dealing with reduced COVID revenue, which allows for €1 in new spending for every €4 in new revenue or cut costs. So if they go that route, raising €400 million via levers will allow them to spend €100 millions. Maybe they’ll go that route and use standard FFP accounting loopholes (e.g., amortizing the cost of player purchases over the life of the contracts) to register all these players, but then they’re still in the same position next year, with less to sell off, and with reduced revenue going forward since these levers are just advances of future television and merchandise revenues. 

Ironic how the tried to call out PSG on FFP years ago and now they are using similar loopholes. I usually don't care about rivals out of England but I'm really praying for their downfall considering their hypocrisy. 

What is it with Brazilian footballers and getting your hopes up? I'm sick of it.

bArCeLOnA iS mY dReAM