The thing I don't understand is this; why on earth would we offload some of the players that clearly need time to adapt to the Barcelona-way of playing the game? They suffer under a coach that doesn't provide them with a clear tactical plan. You can't expect Denis Suárez or André Gomes to be on a level that they will find their own way within the system like Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets or Messi would. We saw Denis Suárez playing good football at Villarreal and thought that €3M for him would be a steal. In some games (like Celtic and Sevilla) he was the best player on the pitch, why wouldn't we give him the time that players like Arda Turan, Aleix Vidal and Rafinha got? Don't expect him to be on the level of Xavi, Iniesta or Busquets, but he will be a good squad player for us. Same goes for André Gomes; I wasn't a fan of his transfer, but it would be ridiculous to sell him after twelve months. I don't think he will ever be one of the best midfielders in the world, but he is and will be a decent squad player. If there's someone we need to criticize, it would be Ivan Rakitic. He was the one we'd expect to be a starting midfielder, but he let us down this season. Denis Suárez, Rafinha and André Gomes are squad players, not starting midfielders (or they shouldn't be at least). If we had a player like Thiago instead of Rakitic, we wouldn't complain about Gomes, Denis of Rafinha right now.
So were would we find the funds to finance a world class player next summer? First of all, we still have La Masia. So when Lucho finally leaves, there's no reason not to promote José Suárez, Sergi Palencia and Marlon Santos, give chances to Sergi Samper and Munir. That would leave us with the need for a right back (Sergi Roberto could cover midfield), a back-up winger and possibly a world class midfielder. So let's assume that Jorge Sampaoli would be coach next season (who's the most realistic candidate so far, even though I fear that the board will choose Koeman, Valverde or Unzué). With the high-pace game he's playing with his teams, players like Jordi Masip (free), Douglas (€2M at most), Jeremy Mathieu (€5M), Thomas Vermaelen (€8M), Cristian Tello (€5M) and Arda Turan (€40M from China) will be redundant. That gives us (€65M minus the €35M we paid last summer for André Gomes, which is financed from the transfer budget for next summer) €90M for next summer to strengthen the team.
The question remains; who to sign with a €90M budget? And who should we sell to stretch that budget? My dream choices would be Hector Bellerín, Thiago Alcantara and Ousmane Dembele, too bad that isn’t realistic given our financial situation. So who would you sign/sell with this budget?
