by First they tried to bring back Lionel Messi, then they briefly brought back Dani Alves. Rafa Márquez returned to take charge of the B team, Xavi Hernández came home, this time as coach, and Deco returned, the former midfielder turned sporting director. They tried to get Carles Puyol to join them. And now Joan Laporta, the president who also came back, re-elected to the post 17 years after it was first held and ten years after he left, wants Edgar Davids to return to FC Barcelona .
Well, Edgar Davids, anyway. And, yes, that was exactly how the president put it. At 50, it might be a little late to put the Davids themselves in the middle of the pitch, but on the eve of their last competitive game before Christmas, 24 hours before they flew to Dallas for a friendly in consideration of €5m ( £4.3m) that they desperately need, Laporta announced that the signing Barcelona wanted was someone just like the Dutchman. Everyone understood the reference immediately even after almost 20 years, his name as a byword for a winter shift that works, as a catalyst for change.
When Davids arrived in January 2004, Barcelona were in seventh place, 15 points behind Real Madrid. In Laporta’s first season as president, things were getting worse, with no way out of the crisis. Davids debut ended in a 1-1 draw with Athletic Bilbao, who went on to win the next nine. His free arrival set up Xavi and released Ronaldinho and by the end Barcelona had overhauled Madrid, winning 2-1 at the Santiago Bernabéu. It wasn’t enough to win the league – Valencia took the title – but it was the resurrection, the beginning of an era. The virtuous cycle that Laporta spoke of had begun.
That era has affected this one but it is also, according to Laporta, a lesson, a certain nostalgia running with his second era as president. Now entering the winter seven points behind Girona and Real Madrid, with Xavi describing parts of their final 2023 performance as “unacceptable”, his team “soulless”, they look for something similar: the Davids Effect.
At the beginning of December, Barcelona defeated Atlético in the match that was set to define both seasons, deciding whether they were in the title race. They also entered the final stage of the Champions League for the first time in three years, topping their group. But defeats against Girona and Antwerp as well as a draw against Valencia brought back the killer, cracks coming again. “It’s like a funeral,” said Xavi, “I get messages as if my mother or father died and I think: ‘Blimey, what happened?'”
The coach had described him as unrealistic, exaggerated; this team is defending champs, after all. He complained that the media in Barcelona “shouldn’t have been left out in the first place” and noted in particular that none of the journalists in the room congratulated him for making progress in Europe, as if that’s their duty. Barcelona’s objectives had been achieved so far, he argued. But Xavi knows that the gap in the league is significant, quality in Europe is at least written into the budget, and the pessimism is not just about the press. He knows that criticism and tension do not only reach the inside from the outside but also reach the outside.
It was disappointing to claim that this was a team “under construction” and the confusion about the squad that traveled to Antwerp did not speak of internal cohesion or stability either. Xavi left out Robert Lewandowski, Ronald Araújo and Ilkay Gündogan, only to reissue the list with all three in it. He then responded to reports that the new squad was a result of the prerogative of the presidency claiming it was a “consensus” decision from the club, with the sporting director laying responsibility solely on his door.
For all the things he talked about their main issue is to be versatile, there are very few really significant performances; if anything the results were better than shown. After the Almería game, Barcelona won 3-2, a late winner scraping past the side that has not won all season, all the doubts, all the frustrations, finally came to the surface. Xavi turned on his players, which does not end well. At half-time he told them they must run like animals or they had no chance; this is not the 2010 side, he reminded them.
Something has to be done. Man to 11, there isn’t much wrong with the team, not when it comes to names, but signings inevitably attract attention. If Xavi wants to see something “unreal” he only needs to see the cast of characters on the covers every morning.
A Davids is different, however. It is a real ambition, for a start, publicly stated. With Oriol Romeu, who arrived from Girona in the summer, in doubt, and Gavi suffering a cruciate ligament tear, there is a need for an athletic, tough, defensive midfielder, a man who needs no time to fit in. adaptation; a player who is contagious to the group even more.
There is another aspect, immediately understood as a defining characteristic of “A Davids”: the Dutchman came on loan, provided a solution and then, six months later, he was gone again, job done: €2m in salary ( for his total salary of €8m) and that’s it: no connections, no hidden costs, no mortgaging of their future, which is pretty precarious as it is. The crisis that forced Messi to leave and prevented him from coming back may not be as dire as it was a few years ago, but it is certainly not resolved.
That’s why when Laporta said “the idea would be to have a midfielder who somehow compensates for the absence of Gavi”, it was so. “If we can find ‘fair play’,” said the president. “It would be a loan until the end of the season, just like we did years ago with Davids.” Even then, Xavi said: “It’s very difficult. We are working with Deco and the president but we have to see if it is possible with the salary issue.”
Barcelona’s salary cap, its first-team budget set by league rules on financial fairness, is €270m, compared to Real Madrid’s €727m. That would be hard enough, but the amount they are spending on their squad – reduced from €676m, and as much as they have lost some of their highest earners, such as Sergio Busquets , Jordi Alba, Antoine Griezmann, and Gérard Pique – is €492m. Because they are over their limits, league rules only allow them to spend one third of what they can show they have saved. For every euro spent, they must show that three were introduced.
This is where it is (in)famous palangas or levers, came in, and part of the reason they clung so hard to the Super League. Creative accounting was critical, by its own admission. Last year, Barcelona made a profit of €98m, boosted by the sale of €727m of non-sporting assets, which they preferred to draw on rather than weaken the team. But that was an emergency move that allowed them to rebuild a competitive squad and even sign Lewandowski, but it can’t be repeated every window. At 35, Meanwhile, Lewandowski is not the same man in front of goal this season.
Last summer, Barcelona spent €3.4m on signings, all on Romeu. Iñigo Martínez signed on a free, his salary subsequently shifted to get within the limits, as did Gündogan, who looked like a smart move from a club still capable of attracting. João Félix and João Cancelo came on loan at the end of the deal, their arrivals signed personally by board members. Barcelona would like to keep both but that requires creative solutions. It’s another question for another day too, another problem pushed down the road.
Barcelona’s total debt is €1.2bn. This year, they are budgeting for revenue of €859m, forecasting a profit of €11m. To do that they need to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Meanwhile, the move to Montjuic and the Camp Nou rebuilt – where only 17,000 societies They opted to keep their season tickets and the meeting with Atlético drew 34,568 fans – it costs them €78m per season, according to vice-president Eduardo Romeu. It is not easy to strengthen it in that context, nor in terms of compliance with financial balance rules, which are implemented a priorior simply being able to afford it.
Barcelona have already signed Brazilian teenager Vitor Roque for €30m plus €26m in variables, the initial €30m spread over the seven years of his contract. He was due to join next summer but his arrival has been brought forward to January – although Xavi was quick to say they couldn’t already load him with the pressure. It’s just a battle to win: Barcelona have to free up around €13m of fair financial margin to sign him up. They planned to do so when a €40m payment came from the Libero investment fund, which bought a 29.5% stake in Barça Studios. However, that payment has not yet been made, forcing them to seek other investors.
“The squad is not as deep as we would like and unfortunately we have lost Gavi,” said Deco. “We had already signed Vitor and decided he should come now. But we depend on the level playing field and this is difficult to resolve. I don’t like to create false expectations.”
Barcelona, said Laporta, “is working on a series of operations; if they can be confirmed, we will have a chance”. Due to Gavi’s injury lasting more than five months, league rules allow Barcelona to spend up to 80% of the value of his salary – but only until the end of the season. Whoever comes, if he comes, will have six months to turn Barcelona. Just like Edgar Davids did.
