As Barcelona continue to struggle along the financial tightrope they’ve been walking for the past few seasons, perhaps now, more than at any other point recently, the club need to make a mint in player sales.
No more pandering to those who are surplus to requirements but keep digging their heels in because they don’t want to leave. Football is a business not a charity and frankly, Barça aren’t in the position to be the latter.
One player who could well be sacrificed this summer is 21-year-old midfielder,
Marc Casadó.
Thanks in part to Marc Bernal’s early injury last season, Casadó made quite the splash at the start of the 2024/25 campaign.
With Bernal now almost ready to return and many tipping him to be one of the shining lights of the squad in due course, Casadó’s playing time will be severely limited.
Though there is some degree of versatility to his game, in that he is able to fill in for one or two other roles, he can’t be considered as even a back-up choice for the central defensive or right-back positions because Hansi Flick has appropriate cover there already.
With West Ham apparently having made their interest in Casado known, and other Premier League clubs circling, Barcelona can sense the opportunity to make some money on a player that’s otherwise going to be stuck on the bench for long periods with not much chance of playing more than cursory minutes here or there.
That Casadó is understood to want to continue with the Catalans, he could very well be wasting part of his career in so doing.
Even if Flick were to decide on playing a more traditional double pivot occasionally to help lock things up defensively, that means the withdrawal of one of Barcelona’s more attacking midfielders and that just can’t happen.
Let’s be clear, Marc Casadó isn’t a bad player, far from it in fact. He’s just found himself in a situation where he’s not going to be a first choice and potentially not even a second choice.
His reasoning to want to stay is understandable of course, particularly when you consider that he’s spent the last nine years at the club.
However, in nine years time, he doesn’t want to be looking back on a career that could’ve been so much better had he taken the right decision when he had the chance.
This is the right time for Barcelona to sell, and the only question mark is whether Casadó eventually agrees.
