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Champions League and EFL Cup holders FC Barcelona went into the recent auction with limited financial muscle having splashed the cash during the first instalment of the pre season transfer 'bonanza'. Danish defender Andreas Christensen and Serbian defensive midfielder Sergej Milinković-Savić were big money arrivals from Arsenal and Celtic respectively and those deals, combined with other transactions, saw the Catalonia giants head into the auction with one of the smaller balances (£69m) restricting their bidding to the lower rated players only.
The first round came and went with the mega rich clubs securing elite level players such as Bellingham and Mbappe. Barcelona meanwhile saw a bid for French defender Kalulu fail as the 24 year old wound up at Premier League side Chelsea, the Londoners outbidding Barca by over £20m.
However all was not lost with Round Two of the auction providing a second chance for clubs who missed out in the opening round to land one of the remaining players from those who received no bids. Barcelona, being one of those clubs, benefitted from the ruling that all players in round two would be reduced to a minimum 40m bid allowing manager Graeme Edwards to bid on any of the remaining players.
Edwards was delighted to see that David Raya - the player he originally wanted to bid on but couldn't afford the minimum value the goalkeeper had in Round One - was still available and despite bids by other clubs the Barcelona born keeper discovered that he would be coming home with a bid a fraction in excess of £68m being enough to secure the 27 year old's services.
Barcelona promptly agreed a deal to offload last season's number one Yann Sommer with the veteran Swiss shot stopper heading to Roma for £25m to provide quality back up to Thibaut Courtois.
It is safe to say that Edwards could not believe his or his club's fortune at being able to land Raya, a significantly younger and higher rated keeper than Sommer
"Quite incredible really, when we saw the original auction list we didn't think there was any way that we'd be able to land Raya as his minimum value initially exceeded our bank balance. But I've been in the game long enough to know that sometimes it's better to fail in Round One of the auction as you can find yourself being rewarded with a bargain in Round Two and that's exactly what's happened to us. I've sat and watched on jealously in the past when some of our competitors have ballsed up their first bid only to come up smelling of roses in Round Two but lo and behold the shoe is on the other foot and fortune has favoured us on this occasion. David is a terrific capture for the club and we genuinely couldn't be any happier with how this has panned out"
Edwards confirmed that Barcelona will continue to try and do one or two other pieces of transfer business before the big kick off, with news breaking earlier that Cameroon internationalist Joël Matip had signed a deal with the club in a move which will see Kyle Walker and £25m head north of the border to EFL1 new 'bhoys' Glasgow Celtic.
The first round came and went with the mega rich clubs securing elite level players such as Bellingham and Mbappe. Barcelona meanwhile saw a bid for French defender Kalulu fail as the 24 year old wound up at Premier League side Chelsea, the Londoners outbidding Barca by over £20m.
However all was not lost with Round Two of the auction providing a second chance for clubs who missed out in the opening round to land one of the remaining players from those who received no bids. Barcelona, being one of those clubs, benefitted from the ruling that all players in round two would be reduced to a minimum 40m bid allowing manager Graeme Edwards to bid on any of the remaining players.
Edwards was delighted to see that David Raya - the player he originally wanted to bid on but couldn't afford the minimum value the goalkeeper had in Round One - was still available and despite bids by other clubs the Barcelona born keeper discovered that he would be coming home with a bid a fraction in excess of £68m being enough to secure the 27 year old's services.
Barcelona promptly agreed a deal to offload last season's number one Yann Sommer with the veteran Swiss shot stopper heading to Roma for £25m to provide quality back up to Thibaut Courtois.
It is safe to say that Edwards could not believe his or his club's fortune at being able to land Raya, a significantly younger and higher rated keeper than Sommer
"Quite incredible really, when we saw the original auction list we didn't think there was any way that we'd be able to land Raya as his minimum value initially exceeded our bank balance. But I've been in the game long enough to know that sometimes it's better to fail in Round One of the auction as you can find yourself being rewarded with a bargain in Round Two and that's exactly what's happened to us. I've sat and watched on jealously in the past when some of our competitors have ballsed up their first bid only to come up smelling of roses in Round Two but lo and behold the shoe is on the other foot and fortune has favoured us on this occasion. David is a terrific capture for the club and we genuinely couldn't be any happier with how this has panned out"
Edwards confirmed that Barcelona will continue to try and do one or two other pieces of transfer business before the big kick off, with news breaking earlier that Cameroon internationalist Joël Matip had signed a deal with the club in a move which will see Kyle Walker and £25m head north of the border to EFL1 new 'bhoys' Glasgow Celtic.