The chance was pretty small for barcelona to win UCL. All of premier league clubs were making massive improvements. Manchester city has also become even stronger than before. I remind you the result against arsenal. Arsenal is a strong team right now. Its level was still under manchester city but it's still also one of strongest team in EPL. The chance for la liga to win UCL is pretty small at this moment. EPL club may dominate the UCL competition. Barcelona needs to prove its quality in the group stage.
The last season has become floop for barcelona as the team was not only failed in the UCL. It was also failed in the europa league. Barcelona needs to prove it first. Im skeptical with barcelona's performance.
barcelona will be using some players from its own academic next season. These players need to get more experiences first. The next season gonna be very difficult for barcelona.
Agree with you that it is unlikely that Barcelona will win the Champions League trophy next season, but every prediction can be wrong as the season goes on. If setting parameters of the transfer market as a basis for assumptions to sort the favorite clubs to win the UCL next season, I think Barca will be included in it. Because currently Barca is ranked number seven in the sequence of clubs that have the most expensive squad in the world.
Barca is also trying to do the same as elite European clubs who are currently intensively improving their squad. However with a modest budget, Xavi cannot do much to recruit star-labeled players. Taking advantage of Barcelona reputation as a big club can provide an advantage in the pursuit of players with free transfer status, like Gundogan.