European champions FC Barcelona have revealed that Pep Guardiola has a €45M transfer budget to spend this summer unless he can raise additional funds with 'beneficial' player sales, says vice-president for economic affairs Javier Faus. The club is undertaking a concerted effort to cut the debt, and that means no more outlandish transfer sprees, at least for a little while:
[Barcelona have] €45m for transfers, plus the money that can be obtained from sales [of players] in the close-season. When we speak about sales we will only consider those that are beneficial to the club...
There has been a very significant effort, which will continue over the next two years, to cut [the] debt. For this board of directors, this milestone is unavoidable and cannot be waived. FC Barcelona lost €83m last year and €21m this year and it cannot allow itself to continue losing money.
While that might seem like a lot of money, most of it will be eaten up by the anticipated transfer of Alexis Sanchez, who's in line to cost as much as €35M by himself. Then again, one has to wonder just why Barcelona need much in the way of a transfer budget - they're the best team in the world and recruiting additional superstars seems rather silly at this point. They should probably just acquire a backup centre back and call it good.