Barcelona found an infinite money glitch

With the new luxury boxes at Camp Nou generating real revenue and Robert Lewandowski leaving the club, the days of Barcelona having to do complex financial engineering just to register players appear to be over. They’re likely to close the signing of Anthony Gordon soon, and it’s just the start of a massive investment in the squad this summer.

Gordon’s move for €70m + add-ons is all but done, with the player already in Catalonia to finalize everything. The main thing that Hansi Flick loves about Gordon — his pace and work rate — aren’t really going to be measured in event data. But he gets a lot of shots, and he was ridiculous in Champions League this year.

With Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, Pedri and Gavi playing the passes for him to run on to, I suspect that Gordon is going to score a pretty ridiculous volume of goals in a Barca shirt.

Marcus Rashford had a successful campaign for the Blaugrana this year, and at this point in their respective careers, Gordon is a better Rashford. I don’t think Gordon would have been worth €70m+ to everyone with that kind of cash to throw around, but he should fit Barca’s needs very well.

But that’s not the only high profile attacker that Barcelona is willing to spend big money on this season. They’re rivaling Arsenal and PSG for Julian Alvarez, who reportedly prefers a move to Barca. He’s going to cost in excess of €100m.

We’ve discussed Alvarez here before, and love his playmaking and dribbling skills, combined with respectable shot volume for a striker. His numbers were down a bit this year with Atléti, but between his historical stats and how much he brings to his team besides scoring, I wouldn’t be that concerned.

Once again, independent of the finances, I think Alvarez would be a sensational signing for Barca from a purely footballing perspective. The forward group of him, Gordon, Raphinha and Yamal would give Barca a completely unmatched combination of speed, creativity and unpredictability in their front line.

And just for a bit of playmaking depth, why not bring in Bernardo Silva on a free as well? He was just as good this year as he was the previous campaign, and is not showing signs of severe dropoff due to age quite yet.

While Silva won’t cost a transfer fee, he’s likely going to command a very large wage and signing-on bonus.

And then there’s this wacky rumour about Piero Hincapie, which seems unlikely to me. I expect Arsenal will take up the option to sign him permanently and won’t have any problem agreeing terms, but Barca’s interest could certainly gum up the works.

How are Barca going to afford these players, and possibly more? I’m uhh… not sure. But they seem utterly unconcerned about the cost caps they’ve been battling for the previous 5 years, and they’re building a ridiculous squad.

More transfer rumours

• Newcastle are reportedly looking to replace Gordon with Abde Ezzalzouli, who was excellent for Real Betis this year. You should read Mohamed’s piece about him from this January.

• If Atleti get a nice big windfall from sales, they might reinvest some of that into Tijjani Reijnders, who was a dud of a transfer for Man City. Though I struggle to think of a less Diego Simeone-coded player. Would be a strange one.

• It appears that Ibrahima Konate is no longer interested in negotiating with Liverpool, and will leave on a free. Real Madrid have been the most commonly linked club, but this will probably drag on for a bit as he tries to get as much money as possible.

• Inter’s negotiations for Curtis Jones are heating up, with a €25m offer currently on the table. Some of the Premier League’s mid-budget and prestige teams should be offering Liverpool more than that. Tottenham, for example, could really use a Curtis Jones.

• Bayern Munich would like to sign Dusan Vlahovic, apparently. I feel like his agent is just yapping to get a bigger salary out of Serie A teams. He’s a very impressive athlete but not a particularly effective footballer.

• Omar Mingueza, the outrageous passing defender who doesn’t defend, would like a Premier League move this summer. He’s such a good passer that I’d support someone rolling the dice on him.

• Leeds are looking into signing Tanner Tessmann, despite his form dropping pretty severely late in the season, causing him to miss the USMNT squad for the World Cup. He’s a decent DM, but I’m not sure he improves on what Leeds have.

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