Barcelona aiming to repeat winter strategy for the summer transfer window

The winter transfer market was an eventful period for Barcelona, with plenty of acquisitions to help Xavi Hernandez to bolster his squad in a cost-effective manner, which was essential given the club’s financial predicaments.

Needless to say, it was a pretty big success, with the signings helping the Spaniard to propel Barcelona up the league table and into the Europa League quarterfinals after a disastrous start to the season.

Ahead of next season, the Catalans have already secured the signings of Franck Kessie from AC Milan and Andreas Christiensen from Chelsea as free agents. Barcelona’s power to attract talent is evidently still second to none.

According to reports from Diario SPORT, the Blaugrana intend on largely maintaining the same strategy for their acquisitions in the summer window. They plan on targeting players that would come for free or next to no cost to further ease their monetary issues.

They also want to keep relieving the pressure by getting necessary contract renewals – such as Ousmane Dembele’s – out of the way as efficiently as possible, to fall back in line with Financial Fair Play regulations.

Barcelona also reportedly believe that Philippe Coutinho and Antoine Griezmann will stay at Aston Villa and Atletico Madrid after their loan spells, which would further alleviate the fiscal burden.

Coutinho in particular has enjoyed a remarkable resurgence in form and confidence under former Liverpool teammate Steven Gerrard’s management at Villa. Griezmann’s contract clauses will most likely make it easier to finalise his transfer as well.