President Joan Laporta promises to strengthen Barcelona

On Friday, Barcelona president, Joan Laporta, made a public statement regarding the shocking UEFA Champions League group stage exit. This is the first time in almost two decades that the Catalans will have to play in the B Tier European tournament and it is a big hit to the club’s name and history. However, times are not very good at Barca and the club is going through a transitional phase where they must rebuild the team from the ground up. Although the club has some amazing young players, without a change in dynamic and mindset, the Catalans won’t be able to challenge the top teams in Europe.

For this restoration phase, the Blaugrana will need support from the management and the board. The board replaced experienced manager, Ronald Koeman, in favour of a more aggressive and attacking-minded youngster. That young coach happens to be Barcelona legend, Xavi Hernandez, and he was taught by the best coach in the world, Pep Guardiola. Now that there is a young coach at the helm of the ship and the youngsters are ready to fight alongside him, the board will need to back them up financially. In Laporta’s public statement he announced that he was ready to strengthen the club in the Summer, even though there are some financial constraints. He said,

"“we all agree that we need to strengthen the team. The problem is that we have inherited some very high contracts that don’t give us much margin with salaries.”“We are working hard to strengthen the squad, and we will. I ask you all to row in the right direction for the good of Barça.”Source Official Website"

In terms of whom to bring into the club, Xavi has already targeted Ferran Torres as his number one choice. The player from Manchester City has made waves around England however, due to Guardiola’s hyper-competitive squad and intense selection process, Torres does not always make the cut into the main team. Thus, he is looking for a new team and he has already agreed to join Barcelona on a verbal agreement. He is also just 21 years old and thus buying him would be a big investment for Barca. Apart from that, Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner are also players on Xavi’s mind. Whatever may be the case, the club needs to make their squad stronger and Laporta is ready to do that.

Who do you want Barca to sign?