Barcelona must sell 4 players to secure January transfer targets

Barcelona need to sell many players in January.

The financial situation at Barcelona is not getting any better and the sacking of club legend Carles Rexach from the role of an assessor to the board, proves their dire need to remove certain players in order to maintain their budget. New manager, Ronald Koeman, also wants to bring in Eric Garcia from Manchester City and Memphis Depay from Olympique Lyonnais, however, he has learnt that he will need to sell off at least four players in order to afford the new transfers.

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The Spanish giants are going through a tough time financially as well as internally in case of management. Recently their president Josep Maria Bartomeu resigned along with the rest of the board and thus things are quite unstable at the moment. Presidential candidate, Victor Font recognizes the severity of the situation and has made two things clear, Neymar is not coming back to the club as they simply cannot afford him, and that Koeman must sell these four players: Samuel Umtiti, Junior Firpo, Martin Braithwaite, and Matheus Fernandes, if he wants to make any new transfer.

Barca are currently over 300 million euros in debt and they need to cut down their wages by at least 191 million euros to maintain their budget. They are hoping to arrive at an agreement about wage cuts with the players by the 23rd of November but many players still disagree with the proposal.

The price cut is not the only problem that the club is going through, finding a new club for the aforementioned players will also be quite an ordeal. Braithwaite was brought in for 18 million euros but he has failed to make any sort of an impact at the club. He has only made four starts since joining the club and has scored only one goal. However, he is not willing to leave as Barcelona are without a number nine and he believes that he might still be useful at the club.

Umtiti is another player who needs to be sold despite the club having a lack of options in the defense. The French international had a good career with Barcelona and was at the top of the world in 2018. However, following his injury, he could never get back to his previous form. This will be the deal-breaking factor as many clubs will not be interested in a player who has not even fully recovered yet.

Another player that does not have much experience is the 22-year-old midfielder, Fernandes. The Brazilian is yet to make an appearance for Barcelona and his 7 million euro transfer was quite bizarre indeed, given that Koeman has yet to give the youngster any minutes.

The only player whom they will not have a problem in selling is Junior Firpo. The 24-year-old left-back has had plenty of first team experience and he is just entering his prime. Barcelona also have a 17-year-old youngster from their B team, ready to replace Firpo. Only catch is that Barca must pay Real Betis 20% as a sell on clause.

Things are looking quite bleak for the former champions of Europe and should they be unable to sell the players, it will be quite the task to return to a state of normalcy. Buying new players will be out of the question and thus Barcelona should try their level best to get rid of these players in order to support Koeman with the players he desires.

Which players do you think Barca should sell in January?