{"id":34710,"date":"2021-07-16T11:12:02","date_gmt":"2021-07-16T10:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=34710"},"modified":"2021-07-16T11:12:02","modified_gmt":"2021-07-16T10:12:02","slug":"barcelona-real-madrid-try-to-escape-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=34710","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona & Real Madrid try to escape crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is usually the time of year when Barcelona and Real Madrid are pestering teams\u00a0about their best players, with their public pressure campaigns often leading to eventual transfer deals.

But the Spanish giants are less stable than normal this summer and do not exude the same swagger towards their business dealings. They are more likely to be sellers than buyers in the coming months,\u00a0Goal\u00a0can report, as financial woes exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic must be confronted.

That comes as several burgeoning global superstars are said to be either on the market or nearing availability. Jadon Sancho has already agreed to terms to join Manchester United; Kylian Mbappe, Romelu Lukaku and Erling Haaland have drawn varying levels of interest from top European sides.

Barcelona and Real Madrid have been noticeably absent from those proceedings to this point, and while the latter side will try to shuffle its budget just enough to stage a last-minute August push for Mbappe, the Catalans are not expected to be able to throw their weight around as they usually do beyond finalising a new deal for Lionel Messi.

The situation at Barcelona

Lionel Messi’s imminent contract extension had been a cloud over all dealings, as his high earnings were\u00a0projected to blow Barcelona well beyond the allowed salary figure\u00a0in La Liga for 2021-22.

But Messi has agreed to slash his wages in half in a new five-year contract,\u00a0Goal\u00a0reported this week.

Still, the club could look to offload players on high wages such as Antoine Griezmann, Philippe Coutinho, Miralem Pjanic and\u00a0Samuel Umtiti. Plus, forward\u00a0Martin Braithwaite is\u00a0reportedly set to move on.

The Blaugrana, favouring cost-effective moves, have added Memphis Depay on a free transfer from Lyon (with a 30 per cent wage cut) and Sergio Aguero on a free transfer from Manchester City.

They are expected to remain in debt through the summer no matter what, with the path to financial stability seen as a long process rather than quick fix.

Sacrifices required for Real Madrid’s\u00a0Mbappe dream<\/strong>

In contrast to Barcelona, Real Madrid will be\u00a0selling for the purpose of saving up for the desired purchase of Paris Saint-Germain star Kylian Mbappe.

They have managed to slash debt by almost\u00a0\u20ac200 million ($236m\/\u00a3171m) over the past year, according to\u00a0recently published bookkeeping.

That leaves them with a current debt of\u00a0\u20ac46 million ($54m\/\u00a339m).

Sacrifices will still need to be made, then,\u00a0potentially including\u00a0the sale of key centre-back Raphael Varane, who has been linked with Manchester United. Captain and fellow defender Sergio Ramos has\u00a0already departed for PSG.

Barring big-time fundraising, free transfer addition David Alaba may be the only widely recognisable star arriving at the Santiago Bernabeu before the deadline.

On a more positive note for the organisation, the burdensome contracts of Isco and Gareth Bale will expire after the upcoming campaign, freeing up more money for next summer if Mbappe is unattainable right now.

Who benefits from the aforementioned financial struggles?
<\/strong>
Reigning La Liga champions Atletico Madrid certainly won’t complain about their rivals being forced to show restraint, especially as they’ve been able to strengthen their own ranks through\u00a0the announced signing of Rodrigo De Paul.

Many Premier League clubs are also\u00a0reeling from mounting debt, but Manchester United, Manchester City and\u00a0Chelsea appear eager to make moves regardless. If Barcelona and Real Madrid aren’t as involved in the market in the short-term, that’s two fewer big fish to worry about.

Manchester United are\u00a0set to bring in \u00a373 million Sancho as their marquee signing, while both\u00a0Manchester City\u00a0and\u00a0Chelsea\u00a0are actively hunting possible\u00a0\u00a3100 million additions at striker, as\u00a0Goal\u00a0has reported in recent months.

Liverpool, the other English club to qualify for the Champions League, have treaded more carefully but still\u00a0secured the\u00a0\u00a336 million signing of RB Leipzig defender\u00a0Ibrahima Konate.

In France, meanwhile, PSG are putting together their\u00a0flashiest window in years\u00a0even for their luxurious standards. They’ve so far added Ramos, goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, winger Achraf Hakimi\u00a0and midfielder\u00a0Gini Wijnaldum.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u25aa\ufe0e By Goal.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is usually the time of year when Barcelona and Real Madrid are pestering teams\u00a0about their best players, with their public pressure campaigns often leading to eventual transfer deals. But the Spanish giants are less stable than normal this summer and do not exude the same swagger towards their business dealings. They are more likely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":34711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5778],"tags":[3713,1957,3714],"class_list":["post-34710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-barca","tag-crisis","tag-real-madrid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34710\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}