A contract renewal that shocked Europe, a four-year unsolved case, the transfer soap opera between Barcelona and Nico Williams ended in a shocking way. Laporta continuously leveraged leverage to help the Red and Blue Army return to its peak, but he has been unable to find a way to solve the dilemma of "delayed registration".

【The "tightwire walking" year after year, why is it so difficult to register a player?

Unlike the UEFA Fiscal Fairness Act (FFP) that likes to settle accounts after the fall, the La Liga access mechanism emphasizes "leniency in and strict exit". La Liga teams need to report their expenditure budget before the season and clearly explain the estimated revenue and cash flow changes. The league uses this as a reference to determine the upper limit of recruitment expenditure for each company.

In order to narrow the gap between the "Swiss Super League" group and other teams, the La Liga has issued many special regulations to restrict giant teams. For example: for those teams that cannot register new players at the beginning of the season because the total expenditure is higher than the limit, only 25% of the financial space freed by players after leaving the team in the middle of the season can be used for new players registration; when the team spends more than 5% of the total cost, only 50% to 70% of the space freed by the player after leaving the team can be used to register new players, and Barcelona has become a victim of this "fair clause".

Barcelona's current dilemma stems from the Bartomeu era. The controversial chairman gave meritorious players a high-paying contract and was still very generous when the mask incident caused the club's revenue ability to decline. These operations almost pushed the Catalan team into the abyss. After Laporta's "second entry into the palace", Barcelona failed in the Champions League group stage for two consecutive seasons, which made the already stressed club's finances worse.

Thanks to Aguero's "help", Ferran Torres was able to successfully register.

In March 2021, after Laporta took office, Barcelona started by persuading veterans to delay receiving salary, starting a magical operation in the financial field. Thanks to the high profile of Alba, Pique and Busquets, Eric Garcia, Depp and Aguero were able to successfully register before the 2021/22 season. In the next winter window, Barcelona successfully sent Coutinho away and Umtiti accepted a salary cut and renewed contract. He caught Aguero's retirement due to injury, and finally registered Ferran Torres, who came to Manchester City, for successful registration.

Lewandowski also almost faced the dilemma of being unable to register.

2022 summer window, Laporta fulfilled its campaign promise and Barcelona completed the remarkable grand purchase. In order to register Lewandowski, Rafinia, Casey, Conde and Marcos Alonso, Laporta continuously leveraged by selling Barcelona studio equity and selling TV broadcast rights. On the other hand, he used his own network to find the next home for Umtiti, and finally made room for the five new players. Before the 2023/24 season started, Barcelona only completed the registration of 13 first-team players when participating in the Gambel Cup. At this time, less than a week after the first round of La Liga, Xavi faced an embarrassing situation where no one was available. Laporta submitted 20 million euros to the La Liga as a guarantee, and Gundogan, Cancelo and Romeu were able to make the appearance, and Inigo Martinez waited until the third round to successfully register.

Rock became a victim of "delayed registration".

In the middle of the 2023/24 season, Garvey was absent for a long time after being seriously injured, and Rock finally completed the registration with the help of special terms. However, this delay in registration still had a serious impact on Rock's status, and Barcelona's most failed deal in recent years came from this.

[The road of leverage is getting narrower and narrower, and it is thought-provoking when two setbacks are encountered]

Faced with the unfavorable situation of internal and external difficulties, Laporta has built a management team composed of many financial experts. They racked their brains to create a complex "financial package", activated nearly 1 billion euros of leveraged transactions through a series of extreme operations, and tried their best to reduce the amount of salary and debt. The focus of the Laporta team is to cope with the financial fairness bill and raise the huge expenses required to recruit players, and does not fundamentally reform the club's management structure, which laid the groundwork for the registration difficulties of Ormo and Nico Williams.

In order to cope with financial pressure, Real Madrid and Barcelona have adopted unconventional measures. The former is persistent in visa-free, while the latter continues to increase leverage.

Laporte's leverage gameplay is extremely risky, and the pressure on Barcelona's management can be imagined. Cruyff and Alemani left one after another, and former Real Betis sports director Antonio Corden rejected Barcelona's invitation, resulting in Deco being a sporting director. The internal structure has loosened, and the external pressure faced by Barcelona is also increasing. La Liga issued new regulations in 2024, and the club's abnormal asset disposal income will be distributed into annual reports. This move is to curb Laporte's leverage operation.

Gundogan left with 51 games, 5 goals and 14 assists, and Barcelona's brand image was affected.

Before the 2024/25 season, Barcelona had priority to register local players including Casador, Pablo Torre and Paul Victor, but the registration issue of new player Olmo has not been resolved for a long time. Due to the previous series of successful buzzer-beating operations, Laporta's difficulty in registering a Spanish international player is insufficient, and she failed to submit the down payment and final payment of the contract in time. Later, despite adopting a series of operations including persuading Gundogan, adjusting its sponsorship contract with Nike, and selling VIP private rooms in the new Camp Nou Stadium, Barcelona still failed to completely solve the registration problem of Olmo and was forced to join the La Liga for several months, and the club's reputation and brand image were greatly affected..

[The financial red lights are on, and Lamacia elites come to put out the fire]

In the 2024/25 season, Barcelona was fully fired and scored 169 goals in 58 games in various competitions, but the experienced Frick still saw the hidden danger - Lewandowski is old, Ferran Torres' performance is not stable enough, and the Red and Blues still need to make up for the front line. As a flag-holder who presses and plays at a high position, Frick has gained inspiration from Enrique's transformation of Ottoman Dembele. He hopes that Rafinia can come to the top of the formation to lead the oppression, and then introduce a left winger who can undertake the task of attacking to share Yamal's pressure.

failed to get Nico Williams, and Barcelona would have a hard time fighting for Louis Dias and Rashford.

During the 2024 European Cup, the Bullfighter Wings formed by Nico Williams and Yamal were invincible. Barcelona originally wanted to copy this combination, but unfortunately they failed to do so. In the fight for Nico Williams, Barcelona seems to be ready to pursue Rashford and Louis Dias. However, in the current situation where the player registration problem has not been solved, it is very difficult to advance these two transactions, and Frick's team will ultimately rely on the Lamacia elite to save the game.

When coaching Bayern, he focused on building the "German FC". Frick attaches great importance to local elites who can resolutely implement tactics. At the beginning of his term, he clarified the core positions of Yamal, Kubasi, Alles Valde and Pedri. Casador and Fermin's appearance picks were once before Frankie De Jong and Ormo. In the first half of the season, there were 6 U22 players in Barcelona's main lineup. In the second half of the Champions League match, 7 U22 players were present at the same time.

In Frick's view, Barcelona players generally have extraordinary skills and outstanding awareness, and the tacit understanding and cohesion brought by their fellow students are unparalleled. These are the basis for building high-level oppression tactics. Lamacia elites have become beneficiaries of the "era leverage era". Paul Victor seems to be an outlier in this group. His outstanding performance in the summer of 2024 failed to enhance his position in Frick's heart. The stranding of the Nico Williams deal may open new paths for his career.

[The money tree is about to grow, and the dawn of Barcelona is coming]

The signing windows in the past four seasons have encountered difficulties in player registration, and Laporta is almost swallowed up by negative public opinion. However, not all those waiting for this Barcelona leader are bad news. Recently, in order to ensure the smooth progress of the Gambel Cup (August 10), the Barcelona Municipal Government has approved the extension of the construction of the new Camp Nou Stadium. The construction party can catch up with the progress through 24-hour uninterrupted operations. The Red and Blue Army is expected to obtain this long-awaited money tree in one month.

Residence in Montsque for two consecutive seasons, Barcelona's game-day revenue ability was greatly reduced. Last season, Barcelona gave club members a large discount, but the sales results of season package tickets were still not ideal. This is also because the fans are dissatisfied with the team's current situation, and because Montsico is far away from the city of Barcelona, ​​it invisibly blocks the viewers' footsteps, and the club's already unoptimistic financial situation has made the worse.

Laporta has high hopes for the new Camp Nou, and the renderings after the renovation of the stadium have been well received. Barcelona fans are very excited about the "new home of the future". The increased game-day revenue after the expansion will help Barcelona relieve financial pressure.

In the 2022/23 season, the Barcelona club's operating income reached 1.259 billion euros, of which the men's football first-team's game-day revenue reached 193 million euros, which is at the unique level in Europe. After systematic transformation, the number of seats at Camp Nou will increase from 99,350 to 105,000, the number of VIP private rooms and VIP suites will increase by 2 times, and Barcelona's total revenue on the new season's game day is expected to reach 300 million euros. The space in the business field has been almost expanded. Laporta hopes to hold on to the new Camp Nou to solve the problem of player registration that has plagued the club for many years.