Barcelona, one of the greatest clubs in history, known for their beautiful style of football, their great history and their academy, La Masia, which produces some of the finest footballers to ever grace the game, wants the gold standard of how a football club should be run.
But nowadays, Barcelona are in bits, in utter shambles. They’ve lost their best player for free, they are broke, they keep losing managers and the fans are not happy.
The big question remains – How did this great club become this messy?
Well, it’s down to arrogance, complacency, greed and just pure stupidity and nothing personifies pure stupidity more than the 2017 signing of 20-year-old winger Ousmane Dembele for 140 million euros and the 2018 signing of Brazilian midfielder Philippe Coutinho for another 140 million euros, which is an obscene amount of money.
Leading up to these terrible transfers, Barcelona were already on a bad run of signings and they were burning money like there’s no tomorrow. Back in 2015, they signed Arda Turan for 30 million, who flopped. In 2016, they signed Andre Gomez for 30 million, he flopped. Paco Alcacer for 27 million, he also flopped and 22 million for Samuel Umtiti from Lyon, who showed moments of promise, but ultimately flopped.
So now we’re in 2017 and Barcelona have been forced to sell their world-class talent winger Neymar JR to PSG for 200 million euros, a world record fee.
Barcelona did not want to lose Neymar and Messi even tried to convince him to stay, but they were helpless as PSG had met Neymar’s release clause and Neymar chose to live the easy life in French League.
Initially, Barcelona had inserted a 200 million euros release clause in Neymar’s contract, thinking no one would ever pay that much money for a single player But PSG were now owned by a nation state and had unlimited money and also had UEFA in their pockets to skirt around FFP. Seeing PSG spend 200 million, which made Barcelona wanting to flex their muscles without doing too much due diligence, they chose Dembélé as their first signing.
Ousmane Dembele – The Chosen Heir to Neymar Jr
Dembélé was 19 years old and had only just completed his first season at Dortmund. Dortmund, a year back, bought him from Rennes for 15 million euros and signed him to a five-year contract.
Dembélé, in his first season at Dortmund, under the guidance of world-class manager Thomas Tuchel, he was outstanding. He played 50 games, scoring 10 goals and providing 22 assists which are brilliant stats for a 19-year-old.
Barcelona were convinced Dembélé had to be their man and they wanted him badly but Dortmund just signed him last year and gave him a five-year contract. So they had no reason to accept any offer from Barcelona unless Barcelona were willing to make a Godfather offer.
So Barcelona, being the fools drunk with money they are, make that Godfather offer for 100 million euros up front plus 40 million on add ons.
Mbappe had just gone to PSG for 200 million and these two wingers looked as the French stars of the future but Dembélé would turn out to be nowhere near the level of Mbappe.
Philippe Coutinho – Another Bad Signing
The second of the disastrous signings from Barcelona came six months later, which was for 24-year-old Philippe Coutinho, who they bought for 105 million euros up front plus 40 million add-ons. Coutinho had joined Liverpool as a 19-year-old and became their leading talisman. He amassed 54 goals for Liverpool.
Now, while 140 million is absurd for any type of player, this transfer made more sense than the Dembélé one because Coutinho was older and he had been carrying Liverpool in the toughest league in the world and he was getting better and better each season.
The Beginning Of The Downfall
OK, so now Barcelona have spent a total of 280 million on two players who are both on high wages. Let’s look at how the downfall unfolded.
Dembélé’s first season was plagued by injuries and he only played 23 matches, scoring four goals and providing nine assists. Not a great first season, but Barcelona did have Messi and Suarez, who were enough to carry the team to glory.
Second season was an improvement for Dembélé, where he played 42 matches and scored 14 goals and eight assists.
Third season, though, was an absolute disaster for Dembélé, where he only played nine matches in all competitions, scoring only one goal and providing no assists. That season he was constantly injured and the fans were worried. There were rumors in the media regarding Dembélé’s commitment to the game and how serious he took training and he would also turn up late to training.
Barcelona at one point even had to hire a personal chef for him because he was going out and eating too much fast food. At this point, the Barcelona fans are starting to realize if Dembélé would ever live up to his promise and start thinking that they might have just overpaid for Dembélé.
Dembélé’s fourth season was a slight improvement, where he played 44 matches, scored 11 goals, and provided five assists. There were improvements, but Barcelona fans expected better, especially for the money they paid for him and patience was running out of how long you can wait until you develop this player. Halfway through the 2021 season, Dembélé had only played eight matches, only one goal, and there’s rumors of him leaving the club.
How Did Coutinho and Dembele Perform?
Now let’s look at Coutinho. Unlike Dembélé, Coutinho was expected to perform instantly and blend into the squad instantly and become Neymar’s replacement and a formed trio with Suarez and Messi, but that did not happen.
His first season, he was getting booed by the fans for putting in lackluster performances. Coutinho responded to the booing once when he scored by putting his fingers in his ears as a celebration which did not go down well with the fans and media. So very rocky start to the club.
Coutinho’s first season stats were nonetheless pretty impressive. 42 matches, 21 goals, and 16 assists in all competitions. However, his second season was below standard. He played 54 matches, scored 11 goals and provided five assists.
At this point, Barcelona once again thought they messed up the money transfer and Coutinho wasn’t going to be the player they thought he was going to be.
Coutinho, after that season, was shipped off to Bayern Munich on loan. For Bayern Munich, he played 39 matches, scored 11 goals and provided 14 assists and also won the Champions League with Bayern, which left with Barca an egg on their face.
Coutinho stayed at Bayern for the second consecutive season in the 2020 season but after that was sent back to Barcelona. Once again, things didn’t really work out.
So overall, Barcelona are responsible for two of the worst signings in history of football in terms of how much they paid for him and what they got back in return. Why they felt the need to spend that much on two players is beyond me and now clubs have learned that those type of fees for players is simply outrageous.
For example, Coutinho played a total of 106 games for Barcelona and scored 26 goals. You’re telling me they paid 140 million euros just to get 106 games back in return and get 26 goals.
For Dembele, he played 120 games and scored 30 goals again. So in a total of 280 million euros they got back 56 goals. Truly awful awful transfers. Whoever was in charge of Barcelona to make those decisions should be fired for this.
I believe what happened was during that time of 2015 to 2018-19 transfer fees became huge and clubs were paying massive fees for average players. Before that, yes, of course, several clubs broke the transfer record for the likes of Ronaldo for Bale who were going to work out but once Manchester United paid 90 odd million for Pogba then people were just dishing out 100 millions and 90 millions for average players.
The Consequences of These Bad Signings
Well, last year, Barcelona were on the brink of bankruptcy. They’ve had to ask all their top players to take their wage cut. They can’t sign any big players anymore and they have just lost their greatest player ever, the greatest footballer ever, Lionel Messi, on a free transfer because they can’t afford to pay his wages anymore.
Barcelona are not performing in the league well, they’re struggling to qualify for the Champions League, they’re constantly knocked out of the Champions League, they were not in the title race last season, they’ve had to sack a load of managers.
It’s just a very badly run club and all the cracks were being papered by Messi’s brilliance for all those years. Behind the scenes, they were not running the club well. However, with Hansi Flick in charge, it seems that Barcelona are starting to get back to their old ways. Instead of spending ridiculous money and trying to bring in big players, Barcelona are doing it their style of bringing young talent through La Masia. For example, Ansu Fati, Pedri, Yamal, Casedo, etc. who will be looking to bring Barcelona back to his glory days.
Thank You For Reading. I hope you enjoyed every lines. See you again.