1L

This club makes me sick to my stomach. We pay Araujo and Stegen €15m every single year, they contribute absolutely NOTHING to the club but we can’t give our best Femeni player whatever she’s asking for.

Re Julian Alvarez: I suppose I’ve become hyper-sensitive to transfer fees ever since overpaying for a handful of players (and their wages) quite literally pushed us toward financial collapse, and we’re only just beginning to steady ourselves again. It’s also true that every time we’ve spent 100m+, it’s ended badly. That’s why I’m inherently skeptical about Alvarez. At that price, it REALLY has to be a transformative signing. That said, I struggle to see a world in which Alvarez fails. He certainly wouldn’t be another Griezmann or Coutinho, while also being an upgrade on what we already have. But squad building, at its core, is about optimisation. It’s about asking where to invest, how much to invest, and whether committing most, if not all, of the budget to one player creates a bigger net gain than making several savvy additions. We need more than just a striker. The question then becomes whether it’s a significant enough upgrade to justify the exorbitant fee. And that’s where things become murky.

🚨 Alexia Putellas says farewell to FC Barcelona:

Llegenda del Barça ✨ Gràcies, Alexia 🥹