Barcelona will need to commit to some significant surgery within their available squad in order to meet Financial Fair Play regulations.
With that in mind, Fabrizio Romano has exclusively confirmed in his latest CaughtOffside column that the Catalan giants will be working on outgoings this summer in order to facilitate ‘potential new signings like Inigo Martinez’.
“Barcelona are working on fixing their current financial difficulties. Financial Fair Play will be crucial for them to understand how much they can spend,” the reliable Italian journalist wrote.
“They will work also on the outgoings, for sure; also to complete potential new signings like Inigo Martinez.
“Jordi Alba was already available on the market one year ago but Barça didn’t find the right solution.”
According to Forbes, Xavi’s outfit must wipe £176.7m off their wage bill to get back in the green and enable themselves to sign new players for the next campaign.
As such, it’s unsurprising to learn, from the same report, that Barca are allegedly prepared to sanction exits for Ansu Fati, Eric Garcia, Ferran Torres, Jordi Alba, Raphinha, and Franck Kessie – should viable suitors make their interest known.
Liverpool were once thought to be interested in the latter man (as has been covered by the Echo) and may perhaps be inclined to test the Camp Nou-based outfit’s resolve in light of their own clear need for midfielders this summer.
By contrast, however, Barcelona may struggle to offload their young Spaniard, despite links to Manchester United, given his own personal desire to become a consistent starter (Mundo Deportivo, via the Mirror).
With the club no doubt keen to build on a potential title win – particularly as far as their hopes of improving their form in the Champions League in 2023/24 is concerned – tough decisions will have to be made once the summer window opens.