Barca kick the admin machine back into gear
Barcelona start the paperwork on Thursday to register their new signings with La Liga. The Catalan club want everyone available for Sunday’s trip to Elche, kick-off 21:30. According to Sport, the board are approaching the job with confidence.
The difference from previous summers comes down to two numbers: 1:1. Barcelona are back under Spain’s financial control rule, which lets a club reinvest one euro for every euro saved or brought in. In recent seasons, Barca were working under far stricter ratios and had to sell players or pull financial levers at the last minute just to get names on the squad list before the opening round.
Rodri, Anthony Gordon, Karim Adeyemi and Hamza Abdelkarim are expected to be registered without any major problems. Jesse Bisiwu will get a licence with Barca Atletic. Andreas Christensen also needs to be re-registered after signing his contract extension.
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Cancelo is the hold-up
That leaves Joao Cancelo. The Portuguese full-back arrived on a free after leaving Al-Hilal and has signed through 2029. But his late arrival on 17 August leaves the club far less room to complete the admin work than with the other new faces.
The calendar is the real opponent here. There are only three days between his signing and the trip to Elche. The board are hoping to create the wage space they need through the final moves of the summer window. The aim is straightforward: no new signing should miss the first match because of paperwork.
A familiar soap opera
For Barcelona, this is hardly new territory. Since the start of the decade, the club have watched new signings wait on their licences until the final hours before the league season begins. Some have even missed whole matchdays. The twist this summer is that Barca are heading into the deadline without having to dump a player in a rush.
Cancelo, though, is still learning the routine. At 32, the Portuguese defender is back in a major European league after his spell in Saudi Arabia. He may yet have to wait a little longer before stepping out at the Martinez Valero.
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