The transfer window is set to slam shut tomorrow and Barcelona still have a lot of work to do. The Joao Cancelo deal is the main priority in terms of incoming, with Ansu Fati, Eric Garcia, Clement Lenglet and Abde Ezzazouli the names linked with a move away from Catalonia.
The Cancelo deal has been dragging on all summer, largely due to the financial state of the La Liga champions. Now the breakthrough may have occurred with the removal of the purchase option, something to help balance the books on FFP.
According to football insider Fabrizio Romano, Barcelona are willing to lose the purchase option and negotiate in good faith next summer using the €25 million fee that was previously reported.
Barcelona are prepared to remove the buy option clause from João Cancelo deal to get Financial Fair Play approval after agreement reached 🔵🔴 #FCB
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 31, 2023
Deal to be sealed on straight loan until June 2024 — keeping that number as reference for verbal talks next year. 🇵🇹 pic.twitter.com/Ih8ZPe7ea8
All sides are confident the Joao Cancelo deal will eventually get done
Cancelo has been frozen out at Manchester City after finding himself in Pep Guardiola’s doghouse and has been looking for a way out after spending the second half of the 2022-23 season on loan at German champions Bayern Munich.
His preference has always been to come to Barcelona, but Joan Laporta first needed to balance the books after the signings of Inigo Martinez and Oriol Romeu.
Franck Kessie left for Saudi Arabia, Dembele left for PSG and a number of players are heading out the door on short-term loan deals, opening up financial space in the wage structure to sign someone like Cancelo.
The Champions League draw will occur tonight, and Cancelo is being signed for his experience in the competition. Not only do Barcelona need to do well in terms of their footballing pride, but escaping the group stage is financially very beneficial.
According to data from last year, each group stage win is worth €2.8 million, and qualifying for the last 16 nets you €9.6 million.
Cancelo’s experience was the main reason Xavi preferred the Portuguese right-back
to young Spanish defender Ivan Fresneda, who later signed with Sporting Lisbon.