According to "Sport", Barcelona's sporting director Deco has had an excellent summer, and despite failing to sign Julián Álvarez, he has managed to assemble a solid squad for Flick.

After Flick led the team to win the last two league titles, Barcelona worked to strengthen the squad and overall depth in this summer transfer window, so the German coach can continue pursuing further honours. Blaugrana also need to keep competing with Real Madrid for dominance in Spanish football, but the main objective is the Champions League, with their last triumph in 2015.

To this end, the sporting direction led by Deco made great efforts and ultimately secured 7 new signings. The most prominent is Rodri, who as the best player from the last World Cup will lead a midfield full of stars alongside Pedri, Gavi, Bernal, Fermín, Olmo and Frenkie de Jong. It was the latter's injury that prompted Barcelona to consider signing Rodri, and Deco quickly completed this deal, surprising many, including Real Madrid. Real Madrid had initially assumed this midfielder would join them, as Mourinho's new project badly needed such a piece.

Deco also reinforced Barcelona's attack with the arrival of 4 players. The most significant signing was Gordon from Newcastle United for a fixed transfer fee of 70 million euros, plus 10 million euros in add-ons. This player has already won over the Camp Nou fans in his opening matches. Deco seized the market opportunity to bring in Adeyemi to fill the gap left by Rashford's departure; he also bet on young talent Bissouma, whom Barcelona signed from Club Brugge for 8.5 million euros. This player can alternate between the first team and the reserve team, as can Egyptian Hamza Abulkarim.

Latest to join was Jesús, also a market opportunity signing. However, the signing of this Brazilian striker was only finalized after Barcelona's primary target throughout the summer, Julián Álvarez, could not arrive. Flick's team lost its goal guarantee with Lewandowski's departure and Ferran Torres's transfer to PSG, and this Atlético Madrid striker was meant to fill those gaps. Barcelona sent a 100 million euro offer to Atlético Madrid, but despite the player himself putting pressure, Atlético refused to sell to Barcelona. Had it materialized, this could have been a perfect ending to the summer window for Barcelona's current sporting director.

Deco strengthened all areas during the summer. With Szczesny set to retire in a year, Barcelona proactively addressed the goalkeeper position by signing Croatian keeper Livakovic, who is now backup to Joan García. In defence, Cancelo, who had been on loan at Barcelona twice, officially became a Barcelona player after terminating his contract with Al-Hilal and becoming a free agent. Additionally, though not a new signing, Espart has also been promoted to the first-team squad, which is also a valuable addition. The only regret is not having signed a left-footed centre-back.

The sporting director also did excellent work clearing out players Flick did not need. Ter Stegen was loaned to Ajax, Araújo left for Liverpool and Casadó went to Deportivo La Coruña; however, Barcelona had originally hoped to sell this academy product outright for substantial revenue. Deco recouped funds by selling Ferran Torres to Paris Saint-Germain, managing loaned-out players like Iñaki Peña, Fati and Héctor Fort, and allowing academy players without a first-team future to depart, such as Tommy Márquez, Guillén, Toni Fernández, Jofre Torrents and Álvaro Cortés.

Traducido por IA.

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