by First they tried to get Lionel Messi back, then they got Dani Alves back, briefly. Rafa Márquez returned to take charge of the reserve team, Xavi Hernández returned home, this time as coach, and Deco, the former midfielder turned sports director, arrived again. They tried to get Carles Puyol to join them. And now Joan Laporta, the president who also returned, re-elected to the position 17 years after he ran for the first time and a decade after he left, wants Edgar Davids to return to FC Barcelona.
Well, an Edgar Davids, at least. And yes, that was exactly how the president put it. At 50 years old, it may be a little late to put the real Davids in midfield, but on the eve of their last competitive game before Christmas, 24 hours before, they flew to Dallas for a friendly in exchange for 5 million of much-needed euros (£4.3m), Laporta announced that the signing Barcelona were looking for was someone like the Dutchman. The reference was immediately understood by everyone, even after almost 20 years, his name is synonymous with a winter signing that works, a catalyst for change.
When Davids arrived in January 2004, Barcelona were seventh, 15 points behind Real Madrid. In Laporta’s first season as president things were falling apart, there was no way out of the crisis. Davids’ first match ended with a 1-1 draw against Athletic Bilbao and the next nine with a win. His arrival freed Xavi and freed Ronaldinho and in the end Barcelona had surpassed Madrid, defeating them 2-1 at the Santiago Bernabéu. It was not enough to win the League – Valencia took the title – but it was the resurrection, the beginning of their era. The virtuous circle that Laporta spoke of had begun.
That era has become a burden for this one, but it is also, Laporta believes, a lesson, a certain nostalgia that runs through his second era as president. Now, heading into winter, seven points behind Girona and Real Madrid, with Xavi describing parts of the final from him. The 2023 performance is “unacceptable”, it is a “soulless” team, they are looking for something similar: the Davids Effect.
In early December, Barcelona defeated Atlético in the match that was to define their two seasons and decide whether they were in the title race. They also reached the knockout stage of the Champions League for the first time in three years, topping their group. But the defeats against Girona and Antwerp plus the draw against Valencia brought back the fatalism and the cracks reappeared. “It’s like a funeral,” said Xavi, “I get messages as if my mother or father had died and I think: ‘Wow, what happened?’”
The coach had described everything as unreal, exaggerated; After all, this team is the defending champion. He complained that the Barcelona media should not “give up at the first opportunity” and pointed out that none of the journalists present in the room had congratulated him for progressing in Europe, as if it were his duty. Barcelona’s objectives have been met so far, he insisted. However, Xavi knows that the gap in the league is significant, that European qualification is a minimum included in the budget and that the pessimism is not just about the press. He is aware that criticism and tension not only reach inside from outside but also reach outside from within.
His statement that it was a team “under construction” was disconcerting and the confusion over the squad that traveled to Antwerp did not speak of internal cohesion or stability either. Xavi left out Robert Lewandowski, Ronald Araújo and Ilkay Gündogan, but the list was republished with the three. He then responded to reports that the new team was the product of presidential prerogative by stating that it had been a “consensus” decision by the club, only for the sporting director to attribute responsibility solely to him.
Despite all his talk about his main problem being waste, there have been few truly impressive performances; In any case, the results have been better than the performances. After the game against Almería, which Barcelona won 3-2, a late winner overcoming a team that hadn’t won all season, all those doubts, all the frustrations, finally came to the surface. Xavi turned against his players, which usually doesn’t end well. At half-time he told them that they had to run like animals or they had no chance; This is not the 2010 team, he reminded them.
We have to do something. From one to 11, there are not many problems in the team, not when it comes to names, but the attention inevitably turns to the signings. If Xavi really wants to see something “unreal” he just needs to see the cast of characters that appear on the covers every morning.
However, a Davids is different. It is a real aspiration, to begin with, publicly declared. With doubts over Oriol Romeu, who arrived from Girona in the summer, and with Gavi suffering a torn cruciate ligament, an athletic, tough and defensive midfielder is needed, who does not need time to adapt; an infectious player for the group even more.
There is another element, immediately understood as a defining characteristic of “a Davids”: the Dutchman arrived on loan, provided a solution and then, six months later, left again, with the job done: 2 million euros in salary (from his total salary of 8 million euros) and that’s it: no ties, no hidden costs, without mortgaging your future, which is already quite precarious. The crisis that forced Messi’s departure and prevented him from returning may not be as alarming as it was a couple of years ago, but it certainly has not been resolved.
That’s why when Laporta said “the idea would be to have a midfielder who somehow compensates for Gavi’s absence”, there was a yes. “If we can get a ‘fair game,'” the president added. “It would be a loan until the end of the season, like we did years ago with Davids.” Even then, Xavi said: “It’s very difficult. “We are working with Deco and the president but we have to see if it is possible with the salary issue.”
Barcelona’s salary cap, its first-team budget set by the league’s financial fair play rules, is 270 million euros, compared to Real Madrid’s 727 million euros. That would be difficult enough, but the amount they are spending on their squad (although it is less than 676 million euros, and no matter how much they have parted with some of their highest-earning players, such as Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, Antoine Griezmann and Gérard Piqué) is 492 million euros. Because they are over their limit, league rules allow them to spend only one-third of what they can prove they have saved. For every euro spent they must prove that they have contributed three.
This is where the (in)famous levers or levers, came in, and part of the reason why they have held on so tightly to the Super League. Creative accounting has been key, by their own admission. Last year, Barcelona made a profit of 98 million euros, inflated by the sale of 727 million euros in non-sports assets, which it preferred to take advantage of rather than weaken the team. But that was an emergency measure that allowed them to rebuild a competitive team and even sign Lewandowski, but it cannot be repeated in every window. Meanwhile, at 35, Lewandowski is not the same man in front of goal this season.
Last summer, Barcelona spent 3.4 million euros on transfers, all of them for Romeu. Iñigo Martínez signed on a free transfer, his salary was subsequently modified to fit the limits, as was Gündogan, who seemed a smart deal from a club he can still attract. João Félix and João Cancelo arrived on loan at the end of the market and their arrivals were personally signed by the members of the board. Barcelona would like to keep both, but that requires creative solutions. It is also another topic for another day, another problem left by the wayside.
Barcelona’s total debt is 1,200 million euros. This year they budget revenues of 859 million euros and foresee a profit of 11 million euros. To do this, they will have to reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Meanwhile, the move to Montjuic while the Camp Nou – where only 17,000 partners They took the option of keeping their season tickets and the match with Atlético attracted 34,568 fans – it is costing them 78 million euros per season, according to the vice president, Eduardo Romeu. Getting stronger in this context is not easy, not even in terms of compliance with the rules of financial fair play, which apply a priorior just be able to afford it.
Barcelona have already signed Brazilian teenager Vitor Roque for 30 million euros plus 26 million euros in variables, the initial 30 million euros spread over the seven years of his contract. He was due to join next summer, but his arrival was brought forward to January, although Xavi was quick to say that they could no longer burden him with pressure. Getting him is a battle: Barcelona needs to free up around €13 million of financial fair play margin to register him. They had planned it with the arrival of a payment of 40 million euros from the Libero investment fund, which bought a 29.5% stake in Barça Studios. However, that payment has not yet been made, forcing them to look for other investors.
“The team is not as complete as we would like and unfortunately we have lost Gavi,” said Deco. “We had already signed Vítor and decided for him to come now. But we depend on fair play and it is difficult to solve this. “I don’t like creating false expectations.”
Barcelona is, Laporta said, “working on a series of operations; If they can be confirmed, we will have a chance.” As Gavi’s injury lasts more than five months, league rules allow Barcelona to spend up to 80% of the value of his salary, but only until the end of the season. Whoever comes, if they do, will have six months to turn Barcelona around. Just like Edgar Davids did.
