There are four days left for the market to close and Barça still has eight open cases: five stalled starts (Dest, Memphis, Aubameyang, De Jong and Braithwaite) and three pending signings (Marcos Alonso, a right back and the dreamed but almost impossible Bernardo Silva). This situation generates stress in the club and restlessness in Xavi. Laporta is building a high-level squad, from which the coach must create a competitive team. The gigantic complexities that the president and his team of executives have had to face (with Mateu Alemany at the head of the negotiations) due to the chaotic economic situation inherited have caused so many unknowns to be resolved. Not even the four financial levers activated have been enough for the summer to have been placid and it has had to act with surgical precision.
Xavi is suffering the consequences. The coach had already assumed that Barça was facing enormous difficulties, but that does not mean that he feels uncomfortable with so much uncertainty. An example of the surrealism that is being experienced: the three players who scored in the charity friendly against Manchester City (Aubameyang, Memphis and De Jong) may no longer be in the dressing room on September 2. Or maybe yes. And that means that the coach still does not know which players he will have to face a season of maximum demand. Xavi himself assured yesterday, at the press conference prior to the league match against Valladolid, that in the next four days he could go through anything. It may happen that all pending operations are successfully closed, which would be a miracle of biblical dimensions. Or maybe not. And the coach then has to ‘swallow’ players he doesn’t have and run out of others he needs.
Unfortunately, the circumstances are what they are. And Laporta has achieved a lot coming from where we come from. Not even the most optimistic of the culés would have imagined that Barça would be able this summer to sign three stars like Lewandowski, Koundé or Raphinha, beating multimillionaire clubs like Chelsea in the market battle. Xavi, in any case, is looking forward to September 2 to find out how the template is finally made. For better or worse. And from that moment on, build that new Barça that is bound to win titles.