Barcelona’s excellent pre-season has left fans dreaming but there is still plenty of work to do

Barcelona‘s club shop almost ran out of the letter W on Sunday night as demand for Robert Lewandowski‘s shirt went beyond even the club’s expectations.

With a bumper attendance of 83,000 in the Nou Camp to watch the last friendly of the summer, Barcelona began to reap the benefits of a summer in which they have looked to speculate to accumulate – first came the signings, then came the revenue boosts, albeit through the sell-off of future income streams.

The club’s supporters are now waiting to see if all the new arrivals can be registered ahead of this weekend’s kick-off, and to find out if Frenkie de Jong finally gets sold to make it happen.

Barcelona’s thumping win over Pumas at the Nou Camp has left optimism high for the season

But the club’s perilous financial position means there is still work to do for Joan Laporta (right)

Club president Joan Laporta stuck very much to the club line before Sunday’s game, saying: ‘He has offers but we very much want him to stay.’

The reality is that Barcelona’s efforts to satisfy LaLiga’s financial fair play rules would still be massively eased by the Dutch midfielder’s departure.

De Jong has already been warned that if he stays at Barcelona he either needs to take a pay cut or find himself used from the bench (as he was on Sunday) or even as a centre-back (as he was on the US pre-season tour).

The club had hoped that the prospect of him not playing in his position in the lead-up to November’s World Cup would make the player crack but so far he has held his ground despite Barcelona agreeing a deal with Manchester United earlier this summer.

Barcelona’s shop almost ran out of the letter W due to demand for Robert Lewandowski’s shirt

Barcelona are still hopeful that Chelsea will make a move for De Jong – the Dutchman having turned down United because they were not in the Champions League.

Barca’s treatment of De Jong, who is holding out to be paid according to the contract he signed with previous president Josep Bartomeu in 2019 plus wages he deferred through the pandemic, has been widely criticised.

Raphinha and some other Barcelona signings are yet to be registered for the new season

Gary Neville urged the player to seek legal action and this week former Dutch goalkeeper Ronald Waterreus joined the attacks on Barcelona.

He said: ‘I can no longer listen to the slogan ‘Més Que Un Club’ (more than a club). Barcelona is a commercial monstrosity, in my eyes it symbolises everything that makes modern football so ugly.’

Waterreus added: ‘The way Frenkie is now being blackmailed is a striking example of this. I hope he keeps his balance and stays unless they bully him further and wreck his own World Cup chances, in that case it would be better if he joined United.’

If Barcelona are successful in selling De Jong they will sign Bernardo Silva from Manchester City. If they can sell De Jong for the £70million they paid for him when they signed him from Ajax and bring in Silva for a similar price they will do it. 

The financial gain will come for them with the wages because the City midfielder will earn a fraction of the Dutch international’s projected wages.

De Jong was given a massive contract by previous Barcelona president Bartomeu and is due to earn €20m (£16.8m) net this season and as much as €25m (£21m) the following campaign with deferred wages factored in.

Barcelona are confident any deal could be done during the last days of the window because their relationship both with his agent Jorge Mendes and with Manchester City is so good.

Xavi has assembled a strong squad and they appear to be clicking ahead of the new campaign

Selling Frenkie de Jong would ease financial pressure and allow a move for Bernardo Silva (R)

Despite their financial shape-shifting this summer credit rating agency Fitch does not seem overly optimistic about the club’s short-term future.

According to Elconfidencial.com, Fitch has rated €470m (£396m) worth of the club’s overall €1.2billion (£1bn) debt as BBB but downgraded the outlook from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’. If the debt was downgraded it would be in BB (junk bonds) territory.

The pessimism over the club’s projected economic performance is said to have arisen from the planned move from the Nou Camp to the city of Barcelona’s old Olympic Stadium in the 2022-23 season while work is being carried out on the Camp Nou.

But none of that did anything to dampen the tremendous optimism generated by this close season. And a thumping win served up has only increased the feeling Barcelona can win trophies this season.