16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
He is 19, he is averaging 7.58, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
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.
3‑0, and Lamine Yamal took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Barcelona tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
A brace, and Lamine Yamal takes the afternoon — 8.61
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lamine Yamal provided it, and the 8.61 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
26 appearances at Ajax and the goals have stopped going in. Barcelona lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Àlex Vázquez has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nicolás Sierra has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 14 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Barcelona until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Frenkie de Jong was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Barcelona will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Chamois Niortais did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $57.8M for Dominique Brun, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Dominique Brun has, at Barcelona, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Lamine Yamal, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.65
A mark of 8.65 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Barcelona can pretend not to have heard.
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.
13 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Barcelona and Chamois Niortais have settled on $57.8M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manchester United have kept their man, and Barcelona go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Barcelona offered $28.6M; Osasuna said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
6 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Barcelona offered $55.3M; Osasuna said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
$30.9M on the table at Trabzonspor. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Barcelona asked and Villarreal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
11 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Barcelona have gone to Osasuna with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Barcelona offered $35.3M; Real Sociedad said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The offer went to Osasuna this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Lamine Yamal, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.64
A mark of 8.64 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Barcelona have had the benefit of it.
Match2 Jan 2027
Another one collected away from home
5 on the bounce on the road for Barcelona. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
10 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Deportivo La Coruña are out and Barcelona go through, 3‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
A brace, and Lamine Yamal takes the afternoon — 8.56
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lamine Yamal provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Roony Bardghji did not need any: 8.05, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Lamine Yamal was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Marked 9.17 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
8 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. Villarreal will replay every second of the added time for a week.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Barcelona have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad21 Dec 2026
At 19, Lamine Yamal is already the best thing here
An average of 7.30 in a first team he is several years too young for. Barcelona have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Barcelona. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
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.
7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Barcelona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Frenkie de Jong is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Luis Sosa has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nil Rey is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
18 appearances at Ajax and the goals have stopped going in. Barcelona lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Barcelona heard it as anything else.
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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Gabriel Jesus in the middle of it, and Alavés unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Gabriel Jesus at his very best
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Anthony Gordon at his very best
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Fermín at his very best
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lamine Yamal did not need any: 8.46, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Lamine Yamal has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
16 appearances at Ajax and the goals have stopped going in. Barcelona lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
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.
Position 3, 33 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
At 19, Lamine Yamal is already the best thing here
An average of 7.24 in a first team he is several years too young for. Barcelona have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Barcelona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Frenkie de Jong is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
1‑0 against Espanyol, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Barcelona supporters have already started telling it.
11 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Barcelona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eric García is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Barcelona will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
9 shut-outs in 14 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Marc-André ter Stegen has been having a lot of them.
Rayo Vallecano will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Barcelona were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lamine Yamal did not need any: 8.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Lamine Yamal and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The first defeat in 10 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Real Madrid; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Barcelona hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Frenkie de Jong was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 19 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Barcelona will try not to make too much of it.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Barcelona dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Barcelona have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lamine Yamal did not need any: 8.57, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A season average of 7.18 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Barcelona know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Frenkie de Jong and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Fermín has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Barcelona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eric García is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 8.29 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Barcelona can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 13 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Frenkie de Jong was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Daniel Castro is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
Marked 8.28 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Lamine Yamal is on it.
Lamine Yamal was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eric García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Frenkie de Jong was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The young player of the month award goes to a 19-year-old at Barcelona who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pedri is on it.
Elche will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Barcelona were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A brace, and Lamine Yamal takes the afternoon — 8.62
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lamine Yamal provided it, and the 8.62 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.52 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Pedri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Fermín has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marked 8.08 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Atlético Madrid next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
Successful dribbles: 50. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Barcelona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Frenkie de Jong is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Samu Aghehowa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Getafe defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Pedri scored, was marked 7.98, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Pedri has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Oihan Sanz on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Pedri signs something — a contract at Barcelona or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Barcelona close the window on a squad of their own making
20 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The deal that would have taken Pau Cubarsí to Arsenal has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Barcelona with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
11 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Barcelona hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The young player of the month award goes to a 19-year-old at Barcelona who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Barcelona asked and Rayo Vallecano said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Arsenal have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Pau Cubarsí. The answer from Barcelona has not changed — yet.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Barcelona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Frenkie de Jong is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Betis spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
The chase for Samu Aghehowa ended with $35.9M changing hands and Porto out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The chase for Ricardo Pepi ended with $27.0M changing hands and PSV out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Barcelona asked and Villarreal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$11.8M on the table at Alavés. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lamine Yamal did not need any: 8.51, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Samu Aghehowa has just signed for Barcelona, and for once the answer mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Barcelona can pretend not to have heard.
Frenkie de Jong was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
$35.9M settles it between the clubs for Samu Aghehowa
Porto have accepted the money. What Barcelona do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The deal with PSV is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Barcelona asked and Inter said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Enrique Lozano trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Paris Saint-Germain have kept their man, and Barcelona go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Zurich had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Pedri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Barcelona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Frenkie de Jong is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Luka Vera is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Martín Rubio has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Inter have kept their man, and Barcelona go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Add another name to the list: Zaragoza have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Marc Bernal. The answer from Barcelona has not changed — yet.
Still no offer on the table, and Rodri’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Barcelona are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.