How do you thini these things unfold? What's crucial for Barca is to prevent its revenue from dropping. Be it by keeping Messi or signing big names, they'll have to find the money even if it means new loans. If Barca's revenue takes a hit, together with large debt figures, that's what might lead the club closer to bankrupcy and selling (potential) star names.
Barca won't try to save every dime because, in the end, that might lead the club to losing more.
That said, I don't believe we'll be able to pull big signings off this summer. But has to do with lack of time for the board more than anything.
Unfortunately, revenue is going to drop regardless due to COVID. We lost over 100m euros last year because of COVID. We still owe money to Liverpool and Ajax for Coutinho and de Jong. We have to pay a huge sum in the summer to the banks. Yeah, we can restructure our loans, but that's only going to help us in the short-term.
The first thing we have to do is loan/sell/release players who are on big salaries. Messi will have to take a 70% salary reduction.... if he doesn't like that, then he's gone. We also have to pay a 33m loyalty bonus to Messi in the summer. He'll also demand a big signing-on fee. Now, he could waive the loyalty bonus and signing-on fee, but do you honestly see him doing that? I don't. If he took the first half of the loyalty bonus, he's bound to take the 2nd half. I know Messi has more than enough money, but why would he take a much lower offer when he can take a better offer at another club, especially with a team that are very competitive and has an actual chance of winning the Champions League. The only reason Messi will stay is because of his family and that he can't be bothered to move. He knows deep down this team isn't winning another Champions League in the next 3 to 5 years. If anything, we'll probably be even more behind the competitive teams 5 years from now on.
We can try and sign realistic players like Depay, Garcia and Gini, who are free transfers. They're not great players, but it's the best we can do because of our debt. They'll at least add some more depth. Even if we pay installments to players like Haaland, it's going to be with money we don't have. Yeah, we can take a big loan from the bank, but it's just adding to the debt. Signing a player like Haaland won't automatically make us 10 times better. He could start off slow. He also needs good support. Besides, he'll have better teams to choose from than a team that's going through a transition.
I understand that we have to try and make this team competitive by keeping players like Messi at the club for his name alone and the revenue he brings, and I also understand that we have to sign a top talent so we can bring in extra revenue. But to do all of that, we have to be realistic. Reducing the debt now and releasing the big salary players will help us 2 or 3 years from now on. Yeah, we may not be competitive, but at least we'll have a chance 3 to 5 years from now on. It's all about reducing the massive debt and using the youth correctly. I don't want any bullshit promises and the president putting us even more debt.
