The club couldn’t register all their players, and Kounde was sacrificed because he is still not 100 per cent after recent surgery.
Barcelona need to raise some space in their salary limit
In the end, Barcelona could register most of their new arrivals and renewed players for the team’s LaLiga game against Rayo Vallecano on Saturday. Still, Jules Kounde wasn’t registered in time for that Matchday One fixture. The club couldn’t register all their players, and Kounde was sacrificed because he is still not 100 per cent after a recent surgery. Still, he’ll want to make his debut soon, and he’ll have to keep an eye on Barcelona’s exit door. That’s because Barcelona need to raise some space in their salary limit to register Kounde and the easiest way to do this is by player exits or a major salary reduction by a member of the existing squad. Barcelona have moved to the point where they’re operating on the 1:1 rule with LaLiga, meaning they can spend one million euros for every one million euros saved.
Barcelona are negotiating with Busquets and Pique, discussing possible salary deferrals.
So, they need to find some income or savings from somewhere in order to register the Frenchman, whose arrival wasn’t cheap. The Blaugrana directors have been working to reassure Kounde that everything is in order and that he’ll be registered before long. They expect it’s just a matter of days before he is registered. As mentioned above, the club will need either sales or salary cuts or both in order to have the young centre-back available. In terms of potential departures, Frenkie de Jong has been mentioned as being a sellable asset all summer long. At the same time, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Memphis Depay, Samuel Umtiti, Martin Braithwaite and Sergino Dest could all move on too. At the same time, Barcelona are negotiating with Sergio Busquets and Gerard Pique, discussing possible salary deferrals.
A lot needs to be done, not just for Kounde but because Barcelona would also like to bring in Marcos Alonso and Bernardo Silva before the end of the window.