Barcelona’s summer transfer gamble already at risk of failure amid costly Champions League troubles

Barcelona president Joan Laporta spent big in the summer in the hope it would fuel success on the pitch, but a 3-3 draw with Inter has left the club on the brink of an expensive early exit

Barcelona players react after the 3-3 draw with Inter (Getty)

This certainly isn’t the virtuous cycle Joan Laporta aimed for. Barcelona are instead facing up to a cascade of likely events that could see them spiral out of the Champions League at the group stage, and possibly lead to far greater consequences.

As it is, after the irony of a thrilling 3-3 draw that will attract genuine global attention and electrify social media feeds, the Catalans need to beat Bayern Munich and for Viktoria Plzen to avoid defeat to Internazionale. The numbers do not look good.

They also make clear the very real risk to Laporta’s summer plan.

Just at the point when Barcelona need to make themselves as commercially attractive as possible, at the centre of all the biggest moments, they might well drop into the lesser-watched competition.

And, sure, Xavi can point to the “cruelty” of the situation and “serious and inexcusable errors in defence”. Many Barca supporters can also argue they suffered the rank bad luck of Robert Lewandowski missing so many chances against Bayern, the handball against Inter and then losing two defenders to an international break.

But that’s actually part of the point.

Laporta has exposed the club’s financial future to the fickle luck of football. That is what it was based on. This was the warning right from the summer. For all that money influences the game more than anything else, its effect isn’t complete, especially not when you are up against clubs of a similar financial profile.

That leaves a considerable possibility of error. That is why a certain safety net has to be built into any financial plan, an allowance that things can go wrong. This hasn’t seemed the case at Barca from the outside.

It is why the scale of the plan in the summer felt very risky at the time and now seems farcical.

Put bluntly, going out of the Champions League will cost Barca tens of millions this season. It could cost them so much more in the medium term. It prevents the club from restoring the global profile through stars in the manner that Laporta aimed for.

It should be stressed that it isn’t a financial crisis yet – and that they are not yet out – but it would be hugely significant should this worst-case scenario for this season happen in the first few months of the project. Elimination would really set the plan back, possibly requiring more of an overreach.

Even some of Barca’s “Galactico”-like signings, such as Robert Lewandowski, arguably only have a season or two at this level. They were bought to win now; to make Barca great again now.

Robert Lewandowski missed chances for Barca (AP)

A further irony to all of this is that the group stage’s fourth match day has recently tended to be one where the tables take shape. It is when the wealthier clubs bring their resources to bear, and reality asserts itself. That is why so many final group games have had little on the line over the last few years, and that can be seen this season. Some of the groups have already lost their sense of peril. The paths are already set.

Ten of the last round-of-16 places are already occupied by those who make up the 16 wealthiest clubs.

It’s difficult to see that changing, and we may only be left with one or two groups where there is anything to play for. You only have to look at how Liverpool utterly pummelled Rangers when there was even a hint of danger. Likewise, Tottenham Hotspur's response to Eintracht Frankfurt. There's too much of a financial gap.

Barca had meanwhile taken out a €600m long-term loan to stave off their debts, and ensure they could actually assert themselves like one of the wealthiest clubs.

It may fail spectacularly, in the competition they need the most. It also shouldn’t be seen as a coincidence that these struggles have been accompanied by renewed rallying calls for the Super League.

So far, Barca haven’t displayed any new power, or sunlit uplands to come. They’ve only laid out the risk that was always inherent to this plan.

Many were blind to it. Now, they can’t avoid it. It is very unlikely they avoid elimination.