There was a time where Leeds United could have lost star winger Raphinha at a cut rate price this summer to Spanish giants Barcelona.
However, after securing Premier League survival on the final day of the season against Brentford, there can be no doubt that Leeds have all the power in any potential summer transfer dealings with the Catalans. In terms of name brand, Barcelona are one of, if not the most, recognisable football clubs on the planet. In days of old, their pulling power was second to none when it came to attracting the best players in the game.
However, following the departure of Lionel Messi last year, and the financial chaos the club still finds itself in, they will be hard pushed to add Raphinha to their squad this summer.
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Their debts, which forced them to let Messi go to join PSG, currently stand at over £1 billion. They did add Ferran Torres and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in January but they still have a way to go to be able to free themselves up financially. While they have agreements in place to sign the likes of free agents Andreas Christensen and Frank Kessie, they do not currently have space under their salary cap to register both players.
Put simply, Barcelona are still in financial turmoil. In order to register any of their new players, they need to clear wages off the books. The issue is, the players they want to get rid of are not being courted. While they managed to remove the astronomical wages of Philippe Coutinho to Aston Villa last month, the likes of Neto, Sergino Dest, Samuel Umtiti, Clement Lenglet, Miralem Pjanic and Martin Braithwaite are all still on good money.
While some of them would no doubt improve clubs across Europe, why would these clubs want to do business with Barcelona at the Catalan's price? They know Barcelona are in a poor financial position. If anything, they could use this situation to exploit them. Just look at how much money they lost on Coutinho. They paid over £140m in January 2018 for the Brazilian not including his wages. They sold him for £20m four years later.
Poor financial dealings for Barcelona mean that in any proposed summer switch for Raphinha, Leeds will hold all the cards. Unless Leeds need to sell Raphinha to greatly improve their squad this summer, the Whites are in a great position. Securing Premier League safety means Leeds can control the price they get for the Brazilian.
Recently, the Athletic indicated that a bid between £60m to £70m would be required to sign the winger. Of course, should they play hardball, that could leave Raphinha unhappy. The 25-year-old held up his end of the bargain and was one of the Whites key players this season.
However, his contract at Elland Road runs till 2024, meaning Leeds are in no hurry to sell up anytime soon.
