In just a few weeks time, Barcelona and the rest of La Liga’s teams return to domestic action, in what seems to have been the blink of an eye after the end of the World Cup.
With scarcely any time for those players who went deep into the tournament to recover before playing again, it’s all systems go, whether they like it or not.
As was seen in the pre-season friendly at Birmingham, many of those players who might be considered fringe or squad players aren’t yet up to speed in terms of being able to cover
the usual starters on a reasonably regular basis, and that in itself presents a problem.
Perhaps in 2026/27, more than any other recent campaign, Hansi Flick is going to have to rely heavily on rotation options, and if those options aren’t anywhere close to being up to speed in terms of what’s required, depending on the opposition, the Catalans could get a rude awakening.
The summer has already been dominated by the Julian Alvarez saga, too. Not for the first time have the club spent a large part of the summer window going after a player whose club are determined not to sell.
Atletico Madrid were left smarting by the Argentinian’s apparent request to move to Barcelona, and have dug their heels in, at least to this point.
Though any deal isn’t quite dead in the water, it would appear that Atletico are going to make things as difficult as possible for Barca to hire the player in good time.
All the while the Alvarez chase is a live one, of course, it means the club aren’t going after anyone else, and unless Joan Laporta gives up on the deal shortly, it doesn’t really give the club, and particularly Flick, the right amount of time to be able to identify a target, negotiate with him and his club, and be able to sign and integrate the player in the first-team set-up before the season starts in earnest.
Then there’s the small issue of being without Frenkie de Jong for an as-yet-unspecified amount of time.
The Dutchman’s problem, which occurred in the World Cup, threatens to derail his entire season, and de Jong’s great engine, box-to-box running and eye for goal, will be sorely missed.
Aside from those two issues, there hasn’t really been too much for Culers to get excited about in the transfer market either.
Though the highly-rated duo, Karim Adeyemi and Hamza Abdelkarim, have joined, for example, playing for one of the biggest clubs in the world is going to test them to the limit, and the question that supporters will be asking is are they up to the task?
Things can change in the blink of an eye, of course, and when Flick gets the likes of Anthony Gordon et al out on the training pitch, and the squad start getting some rhythm, things will hopefully start looking up.
Right now, however, it doesn’t look too good.
