It was supposed to be different this time. Barcelona had Robert Lewandowski up top, Raphinha beside him on the right, Ousmane Dembele with his new two-year contract on the left and Chelsea ’s Andreas Christensen in the backline. This was a new Barcelona, with all its pulled levers and magical evasive finances bared.
Technically, the Catalan club’s goalless draw with Rayo Vallecano was different. It was not another 1-0 defeat, a result that would have consummated an embarrassing hat-trick of 1-0 losses for the LaLiga behemoth to a club that finished in the bottom half of La Liga last season, having just won promotion from LaLiga2. But any vindication for all the lever pulling and hyper-drama ensnaring the club all summer swiftly evaporated with each offsides flag hauled into the Camp Nou air.
Barcelona have dominated the European summer transfer narrative, spending over €150 million on the likes of Lewandowski, defender Jules Kounde and Raphinha as the rest of the footballing world looked on in stunned bamboozlement at the swelling wage bill, pointing – with limping vigour as time goes on – at the blackhole of debt sitting under the club.
“It’s a pity,” was Barcelona head coach Xavi’s take on the stuttered start to his side’s season. “We wanted to show the fans that we are on a good path.”
Whether Barcelona can readjust themselves onto that good path will be the blockbuster drama of the season. Their ability to gazump and dominate in the transfer market in spite of perceived restraints is remarkable, and if their scheme – mortgaging of their long-term future for short-term gain in hope that (if the short-term gain is triumphant enough) the long-term mortgage will be offset – works out, then Barcelona will irrefutably wear the crown as the summer transfer window’s supreme overlord.
If not, the candidates for the crown run deep (as will the scars from Barcelona's failed plot).
European champions Real Madrid have been fast at work reinvigorating their midfield, snatching the highly-rated French defensive midfielder Aurélien Tchouaméni from all rival overtures. The 22-year-old’s arrival heralds a new midfield generation at the Bernabeu, alongside Federico Valverde (23) and Eduardo Camavinga (19).
The addition of 29-year-old Antonio Rudiger from Chelsea on a free transfer bolsters Real’s already imposing defence. Carlo Ancelotti’s side might have lost to Barcelona in their pre-season El Clásico Las Vegas edition (a feat that Barcelona’s Twitter team effusively and unabashedly celebrated), but Real’s recent business could see that Twitter celebration fold into a dirge.
Meanwhile, Bayern Munich doused any whispered hope that their hegemonic domestic tyranny might flicker, with new signing Sadio Mane scored on his debut in Bayern’s 6-1 rout of last season’s Europa League champions Eintracht Frankfurt. The addition of Dutch centre-back Matthijs De Ligt from Juventus represented something of a coup, adding dynamism and strength in the German backline that could help Bayern make a deeper run into the Champions League.
Elsewhere, Romelu Lukaku is back at Inter Milan on loan after his mega-bucks return to Chelsea. This time, the No 9 wears the No 90, roughly the number of seconds needed to find the back of the net on his debut. The Belgian scored just eight Premier League goals last season. If there were a transfer window award for best wool-pulling-over-eyes deal, Inter stake a good claim to it.
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