5 biggest transfer mistakes in Barcelona history
Barcelona have made quite a few terrible decisions in the transfer window in the recent past.
Barcelona is a club that's viewed as one of football's grandest homes. The club has maintained its legendary status for over a century and still houses some of the finest footballers on the planet, including the exemplary Lionel Messi.
However, the club has come into disrepute over the past few seasons by virtue of its reckless spending and some terrible management from its top brass.
Things came to a head when former president Josep Maria Bartomeu had to resign as president and was recently booked by police for his involvement in a smear campaign that was run against the club's own players and legends.
Barcelona are slowly finding their feet under Ronald Koeman but owing to the mismanagement they've been subjected to over the years, they will need to be extremely cautious in the summer transfer window.
Without further ado, let's take a look at five of the worst mistakes that Barcelona have made in the transfer market.
5 biggest transfer mistakes in Barcelona history
#5 Letting Luis Suarez leave and join Atletico Madrid
Luis Suarez has been one of the best strikers of the 21st century. After absolutely tearing it up for Liverpool in the Premier League, Luis Suarez secured a dream move to Barcelona in 2014. He flourished alongside Lionel Messi and Neymar and formed one of the deadliest attacking trios in the history of football, widely known as the MSN.
Luis Suarez scored a whopping 198 goals for Barcelona over the course of just six seasons with the Catalans. He even won the European Golden Shoe with Barcelona, becoming the only player other than Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to do it.
Even in what would be his final season at Barcelona, the Uruguayan scored 21 goals and provided 10 assists from across La Liga and the UEFA Champions League. But strangely, Barcelona decided it was time to cut Suarez loose.
The manner in which they went about it was rather disgraceful to say the least. Suarez wasn't kept in the loop and was told that he doesn't have a future as they think he is too old to be the striker for Barcelona.
The joke is on them though. Luis Suarez has joined title-rivals Atletico Madrid and is leading their title charge from the front. He has already scored 18 goals and provided two assists from across 24 appearances in La Liga this term.
To make things worse, Lionel Messi publicly expressed his discontent with the way his close friend and strike partner Luis Suarez was treated by the club and reports suggest that it has contributed to Messi wanting to leave the club as well.
#4 Overpaying for Philippe Coutinho
Neymar's departure went a long way towards filling Barcelona's coffers for the foreseeable future. But the way in which those funds were managed was rather appalling, to say the least.
Coutinho was roped in from Liverpool for a whopping £142 million. While he is not a like-for-like replacement for Neymar Jr., he was tipped to become one of Barcelona's most important players. However, after impressing initially, Coutinho's form waned and he was loaned out to Bayern Munich shortly after.
Coutinho has since returned to the club after winning the continental treble with the Bavarians but he just doesn't look like a good fit for the Catalans. Don't get us wrong, he is a wonderful midfielder but £142 million ought to sort a club out for good whereas this signing just added to Barcelona's problems.