The Barcelona Courier
Squad10 Jul 2028
William Saliba wins it with his country
A Barcelona player is an international champion, and the town will claim a share of a summer it had nothing to do with. 14 caps now, and a name that will be said differently for the rest of his career.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
Inter tell Barcelona: Alessandro Bastoni is not for sale
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market10 Jul 2028
Ceuta come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Barcelona did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Jul 2028
William Saliba in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Barcelona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Daniel Castro is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 15 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Market10 Jul 2028
Gabriel Jesus wants European nights
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Barcelona count the cost of losing Aníbal Chalá
75 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
When it matters, Rayan Cherki plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market10 Jul 2028
The Pedri question follows Barcelona around
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Pedri’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
In brief
- Market Still no ink between Barcelona and Valentin Rosier
- The dugout Marco Carnesecchi has been promised minutes
- Match Barcelona have something to play for