It was supposed to be different this time. Barcelona had Robert Lewandowski up top, Raphinha beside him on the right, Ousmane Dembele with his new two-year contract on the left and Chelsea ’s Andreas Christensen in the backline. This was a new Barcelona, with all its pulled levers and magical evasive finances bared.
Technically, the Catalan club’s goalless draw with Rayo Vallecano was different. It was not another 1-0 defeat, a result that would have consummated an embarrassing hat-trick of 1-0 losses for the LaLiga behemoth to a club that finished in the bottom half of La Liga last season, having just won promotion from LaLiga2. But any vindication for all the lever pulling and hyper-drama ensnaring the club all summer swiftly evaporated with each offsides flag hauled into the Camp Nou air.
Barcelona have dominated the European summer transfer narrative, spending over €150 million on the likes of Lewandowski, defender Jules Kounde and Raphinha as the rest of the footballing world looked on in stunned bamboozlement at the swelling wage bill, pointing – with limping vigour as time goes on – at the blackhole of debt sitting under the club.
