Explained: Why Barcelona have yet to announce Andreas Christensen and Franck Kessie transfers
Barcelona have agreed deals for Andreas Christensen and Franck Kessie but haven't officially announced either player yet.
The Blaugrana are set to sign both players on a free transfer after their contracts with Chelsea and AC Milan, respectively, expired last month. Their moves haven't been made official because Barcelona can't register either player due to their dire finances. They need to clear out a few players to register Christensen and Kessie.
The club is under massive debts right now. They also struggled to register Ferran Torres from Manchester City in January before pulling off some financial moves to get him onboard.
According to Spanish news outlet Diario AS (via Caught Offside), the Blaugrana plan to announce the Christensen and Kessie deals, as they're confident of accommodating both in their salary allowance.
#FCBBoth Franck Kessié and Andreas Christensen have all paperworks signed with Barcelona, contract are ready - Barça told them and agents weeks ago that there will be no issue. ✅🔵🔴 #FCB
Just a matter of time for the official statements.
Currently, Barcelona are hamstrung by La Liga's 'one in four' rule that only allows them to spend €1 million for every €4 million they save.
Given their poor financial conditions, manager Xavi might have to let go of a few more players and reduce their wage bill to announce Christensen and Kessie's signings. That truly underlines the dire state of the club right now and also puts the signings of players like Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha in doubt.
Both players have been linked with Barcelona, particularly Lewandowski, who's keen to join them, as his "time at Bayern Munich is over".
Barça hope that Bayern Munich will sell Robert Lewandowski for around €40m. The club will not improve their offer.
— @mundodeportivo https://t.co/4ozJISDOOT
However, both these deals would be expensive and would require something extraordinary from the Blaugrana to pull them off in the same transfer window.
Barcelona must clear out the deadwood before roping in new stars
The Blaugrana are currently facing the consequences of their reckless transfer business in recent years. They splurged extraordinary amounts of money behind new signings who barely lived up to their price tags.
Although they're getting many of the players for free this summer, their objective must be to clear out the squad by jettisoning the deadwood before making way for new stars.
While Dani Alves and Ousmane Dembele have left, and Adama Traore and Luuk de Jong have returned to their respective clubs, they still have a massive squad, with some of the loanees like Miralem Pjanic returning. Xavi will have some big decisions to make.