Quote from: Xabalo1 on July 05, 2023, 09:19:25 PM

Quote from: SatoPrincess on July 05, 2023, 08:30:12 PM

Quote from: Polkeins on July 05, 2023, 01:19:37 PM

Another good news for Barcelona they signed Inigo Martinez for free.
https://theathletic.com/4664977/2023/07/05/barcelona-transfer-news-inigo-martinez/
Contract until 2025. Martinez is 32 years old and his 3-year contract means that Barcelona believes in the player's potential to play another 3 years at the highest level.
Also, Barcelona, as usual, put a huge amount of 400 million euros for the player, to block a possible transfer in the future.
Reliable and experienced defender will not hurt the team, the fact that last year Athletic Bilbao wanted 50 million euros for the player, but Barcelona preferred to wait and get the player for free.

Barcelona have been lucky with transfers, they have recorded many successful deals with free players. Last summer they signed players for free and it certainly helped them cope with the financial restrictions, they were able to improve their squad and team performance. This window they are repeating the same strategy with signing Ingo Martinez on a free transfer, he has a wide range of experience and will no doubt bring improvement to their defense.

Barcelona are not really doing good with the way they are running these transfers in my own perspective... They are more like operating like the saudi's who are targeting free players and players surplus to requirements in there various teams!!! and this has been successful for them because of the status and reputation they have or once had but the true fact remains that for Barcelona to record utmost success in both the league and the Ucl in the next years, then they have to make moves for exceptional and young talents in the market like they have been known for before this era!!!

I don't think there's anything wrong with looking for free players to get for free? Barcelona are just taking advantage of the shortsightedness of other clubs who don't want to pay an extra couple of million to their players, but willingly pay 50-100 million for new players.
For example Real did not want to increase Assencio's contract by a couple of million and he left for free, although the player is great, he can score, but the management did not want to renew his contract, the same happened with De Gea and many other players.

Barcelona themselves already had this experience when they bought promising players like Coutinho and Fati for huge sums of money. In the end, the club gave more than 200 million dollars and in fact they lost that money.