Barcelona can sign Kounde, Azpilicueta and Alonso without selling De Jong

Updated: 21 Jul 2022 11:13 BST
4 min read

Barcelona’s activity in the remainder of the summer 2022 transfer window does not hinge on them selling Frenkie de Jong to Manchester United, CBS reporter Ben Jacobs writes for FootballTransfers as the Catalan club are linked with Jules Kounde of Sevilla and Chelsea pair Cesar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso.

Barca have been very good, as we’ve seen with Raphinha and we’ve seen with Robert Lewandowski, at just delaying and delaying and delaying until they can find a source of funds elsewhere. When the second lever is activated, that will give Barcelona income they can use on these signings.

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With a lot of the deals that are being put in place, they’re of a low amount financially speaking – for Cesar Azpilicueta, Chelsea want a fee of about £7 million – or the payment terms are staggered, as is the case with Raphinha. That means that the De Jong fee, should the payment happen, will be welcome but not necessarily essential in the case of Marcos Alonso, Azpilicueta and Kounde.

But Barcelona may choose to be more active in the market towards the end of the window. If they are at that point, they can’t keep relying only on the short-term capital that comes from selling television rights.

First lever has relieved pressure on Barca

Barcelona would argue that they’ve got their short-term finances in order, which is why they’re playing hardball on De Jong. A month ago, before the first part of the income from Six Street came in, then it was a little bit different because Barca were worried about having a race against other suitors and not being able to put their money where their mouth was. But now they’ve got that money.

The thing Barcelona do really well, even though other clubs don’t really like it, is they get buy-in from the player often first when they are making signings. Then the player is prepared to wait. We saw that from Raphinha, and when you get the player buy-in, you can wait and do business on your own terms.

Wages key in De Jong sale

© ProShots - Barcelona want rid of Frenkie de Jong's salary

It’s not a case of if they keep De Jong, they can’t bring anyone else in. But the selling of De Jong is not only about the transfer fee, it’s about the alleviation of wages if it happens. It’s about being able to register a player under La Liga’s quite stringent rules, and the only way Barca can do that is by keeping their squad in the approved wage bill.

That’s why De Jong, Memphis Depay, Clement Lenglet to Spurs is another good example, are being considered or have already gone. It’s to chop down that wage bill to make room for registrations. It’s not about the fee, it’s about the squad dynamic. Otherwise, it’s all very well adding these players, but if they can’t register them, they’re still not in a healthy position.

It's a balancing act and it’s very fluid. La Liga president Javier Tebas is very consistent in his position that he’s not going to bend the rules, and yet Barcelona always find a way. They won’t have a long-term problem with registration between now and when the season starts. Historically – and this may continue – that there are some delays for official registration. But Dembele’s return on lower wages, that helps, if De Jong takes the pay cut, that helps, Lenglet going to Spurs takes a wage off the bill as well, Depay looks like being outgoing.

Barcelona are confident they will be able to register the players they bring in so there is no immediate need to sell De Jong.