Guillem Balague: Are Barcelona gambling with their future or just giving fans hope?

 

Laporta is repeating the virtuous circle that brought the club so much success in his first era in charge. All or nothing. Back then he also blamed previous regimes for the predicament he inherited.

Now, ignoring the financial havoc wrought by a global pandemic, he has found in immediate predecessor Josep Maria Bartomeu the perfect villain.

In fact, it was Bartomeu who separated some of the businesses that are now being sold for almost £760m, allowing the club to buy players. Clearly under the former president disastrous decisions were made on the sporting side including expensive contract renewals for famous players - and Bartomeu himself would agree with that. But not everything was bad.

There has always been a civil war at Barcelona between two sides that fight constantly for power, represented now by Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell on one hand (the Catalan establishment) and Laporta on the other. That dynamic often forces the club president to go for short-termism to please the fans and media and not look at the bigger picture.

So Barcelona, through taking out loans and selling bits of the club, had the money to buy players. The problem though was registering them, because they were struggling to pay the new signings' wages while adhering to La Liga's strict financial fair play rules.

Now, however, operating under La Liga's 1/1 rule, every penny the club saves can be invested in the new players - previously, under the 1/4 rule, they needed a four-penny saving to be able to invest one. So now, for instance, if Gerard Pique finally agrees a massive reduction of his wages - something that seemed done but has slowed down in recent days - that will help the registration of Kounde, who will probably play in his place.

Laporta has opted to spend most of the money available now to assemble a strong squad, trusting that success on the pitch will bring money and partners, which will help pay wages and transfer fees in the future, which will bring success, which will bring top players, and so on.

Barcelona calculate that success on the pitch represents 30-40% of the value of the brand and they also believe their brand is so strong that it will survive even one or two years without the biggest successes as long as big players wear their shirt.