COLUMN: Barcelona must not repeat mistakes of winters past with Edgar Davids-style signing

Talking to Barcelona-based newspaper Sport on Monday, Barcelona president Joan Laporta said: “If we manage to have ‘fair play,’ the idea is to have a midfielder who in some way compensates for Gavi’s loss. It would be a loan until the end of the season, like many years ago we did with Edgar Davids, for example.” 

That’s a huge mistake, and here’s why.

Winter transfers are somewhat odd, as they are sudden. Unlike the summer transfer window, where clubs have about two months to plan the squad for the incoming season, the winter transfer window is shorter than a few weeks. While there are successful winter transfers, they mostly tend to be sudden, often brought out of luxury rather than necessity. Barcelona has been especially guilty in the past years of such transfers, especially when it comes to loans. While it was not under the same board, Barcelona brought the likes of Jeison Murillo, Kevin Prince-Boateng, and Martin Braithwaite. None of these loans were successful, and the latter was even signed permanently, to the detriment of all involved parties.

These transfers are usually made because the club ‘can’ sign, despite it should not necessarily needing to do so. As a general rule, summer transfers are better thought out as the coaching staff and the recruiting team have more time to coordinate, and join the wider context of squad building. In the winter, however, they merely become an additional signing, an additional man, disregarding continuity and preferring short-term targets. Just a month ago, in early November, most reports from Catalan media assured that Xavi is unlikely to get any new signings. But by mentioning Edgar Davids — a great player in Barcelona’s history, who was indeed brought out in 2004 from Juventus in the form of a loan —Joan Laporta is putting unnecessary pressure on the any future signing. Davids is not just anyone, he is considered among the greats of in the club’s history.

More importantly, Barcelona has made enough stopgap signings. And most of them have either plateaued or failed. Many of the players in Barcelona’s recent history started exactly like that, and few of them succeeded. This is the case of Marcos Alonso, Arturo Vidal, Oriol Romeu, and the list goes on. While they were not signed on loan, all of their contracts have been extended (except for Romeu, who only arrived from Girona this summer). But the point stands: these are transfers that are not suitable for elite-level football, despite having had decent or great careers in mid-table clubs.

To a larger extent, this is a financial problem, too. Barcelona’s current financial hell does not only come out of expensive transfers such as Philippe Coutinho, Ousmane Dembele or Antoine Griezmann but is also accumulated through seemingly cheap or harmless signings that weigh down Barcelona’s payroll, exactly when it struggles to register players such as Gavi due to Financial Fair Play (FFP). These stopgap, often mediocre players, are not young players with promising careers. Instead, they find themselves on the other end of the spectrum: declining careers. That’s a big problem because it means that Barcelona cannot make any profit on the said signings. It doesn’t matter how ‘cheap’ these signings were, their resale value will either be lower or, in many cases, the players leave for free. Some of these players downright refuse to leave, reluctant to leave a salary they will not find at other clubs, and Barcelona’s great beaches, creating a great ambient for the players’ families.

Signings are supposed to be made with a project in mind. But if the signings are made out of so-called necessity, how does one guarantee that their cases have been studied in-depth to determine if they will fit beyond the short term?  

Barcelona’s greatest problem is that it still contains players that are not up to the task, but that were signed out of necessity. Only Robert Lewandowski, who’s also declining, has had a great career and has consistently delivered throughout the seasons in the past. And he’s also had a dreadful season. Up front, it’s a nightmare. Raphinha arrived from Leeds United 18 months ago, and is still yet to settle in, as he struggles to understand when to dribble and when not to, often resorting to spamming crosses as a coping mechanism.

On the other hand, there’s Joao Felix —a promising talent who has stalled in recent years, the only creative soul of the team, but also a player who does not defend, loses the ball, and is irresponsible in many ways. Some might reject the petulant teenager image that has been cultivated around him, but it’s his football as much his mannerisms that make the 23-year-old feel immature at times. And his acquisition will come at a price – if it happens – many fans have doubts about his continuity in the Catalan capital.

Barcelona have pulled countless financial levers in the past to make many of these signings possible, and the club is still far from having a dream starting XI in comparison to its competitors. Both Joao Felix and Joao Cancelo have notable weaknesses, and will come at a cost if purchased; and yet, the club will only have Vitor Roque as the incoming transfer of the front line, all of this while the team lacks a defensive midfielder. That’s horrific squad planning in hindsight, and no player on the market would justify yet again pursuing another stopgap signing. If anything, it would show that Barcelona have not learned from their recent mistakes – it’s usually better to be patient and wait for the perfect opportunity, instead of jumping on whatever target might come, even if they come with a lot (too many) deficiencies