Barca still have to reduce their wage bill by €200M. They’re in a billion in debt and they’ve just secured another €1.5 billion for the stadium. They’ve already been told by La Liga they can’t sell off any more of their assets to raise funds too. The majority of debt, is now borrowed money from Goldman-sachs, who in essence now control the majority of the club as it stands. GS were the ones who forced Barca into the super league. Guillem Balagué states GS would prefer Messi above everyone else first, as it’ll bring in more sponsors and potential investment. To help them clear some of their debt. If they pursue Messi, he will be asked to take a big pay cut though, to at least something around €25M a year, a quarter of his last salary. But that still means €225M to sort out. So add that to the list, before they even think about signing other players.
It also means, if Barca sign anyone else, it will more than likely, be on a free transfer, and it will be very unlikely, they will be paid significant amounts like in the past. If they do sign players with a higher profile, it’s also highly likely, high profile players will have to leave them. They already have 3 highly rated young midfielders and Busquets, who has reportedly agreed another contract extension. So at the most they may get Gundo for free, but it’s very unlikely they’ll sign any players that cost them on the wage bill. However, re Gundo, I think that also depends on him, as he said publicly it depends if he can take the toll of the Premiere league for another year, based on his past injuries. Basically, if he went, he would use Barca as a retirement club.
Barca have shown in recent years they don’t seem to care much about their financial situation and they try to find loopholes. But Tebas stated, if they don’t reduce their wage bill by €200M they won’t be able to register players next season. As things stand they're breaching La Liga rules and have been doing so. They sold a lot of club assets to help them raise money, but Tebas has told them they can’t do that anymore. The rest of the leagues members are putting massive pressure on Tebas to punish them. Then add to that the scandal involving leaked evidence of them paying the head of the referee committee, and you’ve got one hugely messed up club. Realistically, they shouldn’t sign anyone else.
