What are Barcelona cooking?

Ted and I have dedicated a good chunk of space in this newsletter to making fun of Barcelona’s transfer policy. It’s been quite ridiculous, and it could get even worse over the next week and a half. But their new manager Hansi Flick likely has very little to do with that, and it appears he might be very competent at being a football coach.

Barca did not perform well in the first half of their opening match against Valencia, but positive halftime adjustments are a sign of a good manager, and he made some excellent ones. The Blaugrana completely dominated the second half and didn’t allow Valencia a shot after the 55th minute.

The biggest change was in the runs that Raphinha made from the No. 10 position and how well he combined with Lamine Yamal on the right wing. The way Valencia’s defense had to react to the threat of their dribbling and one-two combinations opened up more space for Robert Lewandowski in the box. Barca’s last goal came very early in the second half, but they continued to threaten until the end of the match and were unlucky not to add a third.

For all the positives, Barcelona didn’t get much out of their right winger, Ferran Torres. They’ve been desperately trying to replace him with Nico Williams all summer, but he doesn’t seem interested in leaving the club, and Williams opted to stay at Athletic Bilbao after recognizing that Barca would struggle to register him, as they have with Dani Olmo.

But Barca is not giving up on their dream of yeeting Torres to Narnia and signing someone better. Several Spanish media outlets insist that their top target is AC Milan’s Rafael Leao, a player who would cost them at least as much as the €60m they paid for Olmo and would have needed to pay for Nico Williams. This simply isn’t possible unless Torres is sold, and would be financially irresponsible even if he was.

The Italian journalist Nicolo Schira has revealed a much more reasonable option: Federico Chiesa, who Juventus are happy to sell for €15m. He’s previously expressed interest in a Premier League move, and was linked to Spurs and Chelsea, but Barca’s not the worst backup plan with English interest seemingly low.

I don’t doubt that Leao is the better player, but I quite like Chiesa as a Leao From AliExpress option.

This is a huge “if,” but IF Barcelona can convince Torres to frick off and sign Chiesa for less than they get for Torres, I think they’ll be doing some good business. I also think Olmo is a nice upgrade at the 10 spot over Raphinha, even if he cost too much.

Barcelona are still in a massive financial hole and generally behaving irresponsibly, but there are a lot of signs that this season’s team is going to be better than last season’s.

—KM

News and rumours

• The Atléti-Chelsea transfer saga has finally concluded, with Conor Gallagher being announced as an Atlético Madrid player, and Joao Felix as a Chelsea player. We previously covered why Gallagher is a perfect fit for the Colchoneros, and why Felix is an odd fit for the Blues.

• Liverpool have moved closer to signing goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili for about £29m, according to various reports in Spanish media. I really like Liverpool’s strategy of buying Alisson’s eventual replacement now and loaning him out; they don’t have a lot of signings to make this window, but might need to spend a lot next summer as Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah, and Trent Alexander-Arnold run down their contracts.

• An update on the Nketiah vs. Gimenez situation: Forest has submitted increased bids for both. David Ornstein says Nketiah is their preferred target, but Fabrizio Romano says they’re still negotiating for Gimenez as well.

• Celtic might be tempted into a couple of massive sales in the next few days. Manchester City are looking at Kyogo Furuhashi as a potential Julian Alvarez replacement, while Brighton have entered the bidding war for Matt O’Riley. I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m really interested to see what kind of youngsters and under-the-radar players Celtic invests in over the next couple windows after likely making these sales.

• Armando Broja is heading to Ipswich on loan with a £30m obligation to buy that triggers if they stay up, so this may or may not be a very nice PSR boost for Chelsea. I am Broja-skeptical, but the scenario where Ipswich stays up probably includes their new striker signing scoring 10+ goals.

• In addition to Sander Berge, who we discussed yesterday, Fulham are going to add defender Joachim Andersen from Crystal Palace for £30m. I’m not sure a club in Fulham’s position should pay that much for any 28-year-old (he’s 28 until he turns 29), but Andersen was a very solid all-around CB last year.

• That move should cause Palace to get even more stubborn about selling Marc Guehi, so Newcastle are turning to alternative targets, like Bayer Leverkusen’s Edmond Tapsoba. He won’t be cheap, but he’ll be less than £65m. They’ve also asked Chelsea about Axel Disasi, who I think is not as good as Tapsoba, but still not a terrible option.

• I really like Atalanta’s prospective signing of Torino right wingback Raoul Bellanova. He had 7 assists from 5.08 xG assisted last year for a team that was quite defensive. In a more wide-open system, crossing to Gianluca Scamacca and Mateo Retegui, he could put up some silly numbers.

• I’m not sure that Napoli paying €28m for 27-year-old David Neres is particularly smart given that he trended a bit downwards last year. I really don’t think paying €30m for Romelu Lukaku makes sense. There’s a high probability that these moves come back to bite them in a couple years.
  
  But I don’t have a financial interest in Napoli, so I’m just going to enjoy the football this year. And this dude in a front 3 with Kvara and Lukaku? Hell yeah.

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