Joan Laporta did not have much choice, Josep Maria Bartomeu left him debt collectors at the gates of Camp Nou and the new president of Barcelona had to cut costs. With Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann gone, the club lost 47 percent of last season’s goals, but on the other hand they reduced the salaries amount by some 170 million USD – from 670 million to more acceptable (although still huge) 500 million, which is around 85 percent of club’s total budget.The Catalans can’t get over the fact that the previous administration was not guided by sports logic at all while spending all that money. The Catalans and Barcelona fans in general saw crucial evidence in – Antoine Griezmann.”We would trade him for Daffy Duck even,” local Sport quotes the words of an unnamed man from the Barça sports sector as he explains to them what madness the last day of the transfer window at the Camp Nou stadium was like.All those training sessions together and there is still no working formulaThere is also that photo of football director Mateu Alemany who, a few minutes before midnight and the expiration of the transfer window, grabs his head when the transfer system (TMS) crashed in Spain, and it seemed that Griezmann’s sale to Atletico would not be finalized. Before that, Barcelona even wanted to pull a trick with Antoine – they offered him to Los Colchoneros in exchange for Joao Felix, even Diego Simeone was allegedly up for the deal, but the majority owner Miguel Ángel Gil Marín was smart enough to stop the swap.In the end, Atletico got Griezmann almost for free – they will pay Barcelona 12 million for the loan, and after a year they will potentially buy him for another 47.5 million. Certainly a better option than giving Felix who was bought for 150 million USD, even though he does not manage to find his place in Simeone’s system yet.As for Barcelona, many will now say that Antoine should not have been brought to Camp Nou at all. When the Frenchman came, the newspaper Sport wrote on their front page – “The locker room does not want Griezmann”. It all looked as if the transfer of the French national team player was never based on a healthy foundations.Ansu Fati becomes Barca’s first non-South American ’10’ after two decadesThere is even a mention of an strange situation that allegedly happened at a 2019 training session – Griezmann has not officially signed yet, Lionel Messi approached the then-coach Ernesto Valverde and asked him: “And where will he play?”. Rumour has it that Valverde just shrug his shoulders silently. He didn’t even know. Nor was Griezmann his idea.Sport went on and claimed that club management brought Griezmann to diminish the influence that Messi and Luis Suarez had in the locker room. To those who doubt this theory, the editors of the newspaper say: two years have passed, after Valverde, Quique Setien arrived and left, then Ronald Koeman came, and no one has yet found a position for Griezmann. There is no solid place for him in Barca’s specific 4-3-3 system, which is quite a condition for Koeman if he wants to extend Griezmann’s contract.##EDITORS_CHOICE##Of course, Griezmann is not to blame for all this, he simply found himself in a system that was not made to his measure. After 133 goals in 257 games for Atletico, he only scored 35 in 102 appearances with Barcelona. In the first season 15 and in the second 20 – he has not been this ineffective since the 2013/2014 season, when he wore the Real Sociedad shirt.The fact that his salary – but not only his – burdened the club so much that it did not leave room and money for Messi to stay, is again not Griezmann’s fault, but a consequence of Bartomeu’s stunts. It is difficult to say whether it was accidental or intentional – as Sport claims – but the fact is that Griezmann also had an influence on the departure of Luis Suarez and on the later parting with Lionel Messi.Two years after the transfer worth 142.5 million USD, Antoine Griezmann left the Camp Nou stadium with only the Copa Del Rey trophy in his suitcase.##NAJAVA_MECA_5788521##A similar but less talked-about situation is with the Bosnian playmaker Miralem Pjanic. In a swap done with Juventus, Pjanic came to Camp Nou while Brazilian midfielder Arthur went to Turin. The swap deal involving the two was one of the most important deals done by either Barcelona or Juventus in the summer of 2020, and it was a move with a clear financial intention behind it. Unfortunately for both clubs, neither player has benefited from the move from a footballing perspective, and with the ending of the last season it can be said that it hasn’t been good sporting business from anyone.There has been no place for Pjanić at Camp Nou for a long time. In the previous months, he was linked with the return to Juventus, which eventually stepped away from the idea, because Barcelona did not want to pay the entirety of his annual income. Luckily for the Bosnian footballer, he now has some room to play as he has joined Turkish champion Besiktas in a loan deal. Istanbul Eagles managed to bring a big signing, and they will pay a third of his annual salary in the amount of 3.3 million USD. Barça will be left with a considerable burden, as he will have to pay most of his annual income by the end of the season.✍️ DONE DEAL: @Miralem_Pjanic ➡️ @Besiktas 🦅 pic.twitter.com/QPAx6SqxV8— 433 (@433) September 2, 2021 The Catalans have big financial problems, so in the absence of better solutions, they agreed to part with the Bosnian, at least for a short time, in order to relieve themselves from a part of his income. His contract with the club is until the summer of 2024, with an annual income of around 9.5 million USD. Too much for a player to sit on the bench. So they decided to save money and allow the player to return to competitive form, in order to eventually sell him in January or during the next summer transfer window.
