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After a quiet month on the transfer front, FC Barcelona exploded into life this week agreeing a bumper 4 for 4 deal with fellow EFL1 side Glasgow Celtic.
The Catalonia based club have moved on players with greater experience and talent for younger less abled replacements so it remains to be seen what impact the deal will have on the fortunes of the team.
Leaving Barca at the end of this week will be 27 year old goalkeeper David Raya, 28 year old English defender Ben White, 29 year old Spanish centre back Diego Llorente and 28 year old Cameroon international defensive midfielder André-Frank Zambo Anguissa who the club shelled out over £200m for in last season's FFO auction.
To replace them Barca will welcome in 22 year old Georgian goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili, 22 year old Dutch defender Micky Van de Ven, 30 year old Dutch right back Rick Karsdorp and finally 23 year old Argentinian midfielder Enzo Fernández. The Spanish side will also receive a £5m fee as part of the deal.
Manager Graeme Edwards spoke earlier today to explain his rationale behind the deal and how it had come about to begin with
"We were approached by Sam Bradwell the Celtic manager yesterday morning and to begin with it was to discuss the possibility of exchanging Anguissa and Fernandez which is something we had first discussed several weeks ago. Anguissa is unquestionably the better player but the trade off for us was to get in a talented younger replacement. We have a number of experienced players in our squad and we are very much conscious that the way the landscape has changed in FFO recently with seasonal ageing, we really needed to try and bring in some younger players"
The Scot continued "The initial discussion surrounding those two players quickly accelerated and before we knew it Sam was offering a multi player exchange. At first we were a little reluctant as the players we would be losing are very much key players to us and are pivotal in the way that we like to play. But the more thought I gave it the more I realised that in order to get in younger bodies it was always going to mean we'd have to sacrifice some of our better players and take a hit in the short term in terms of ability. Sam is a manager I get on very well with and discussions continued throughout the day and into the evening upon which we finally agreed to do the deal. Celtic agreeing to pay us a fee of £5m on top was enough to sweeten things as we aren't particularly flush with cash as things stand"
The departing players, who have all helped contribute to a solid start to the season for Barca, will get the opportunity to say farewell to the home support on Friday night when Derek Hughes brings his star studded Galactico laden Roma side to Camp Nou for what should be a highly entertaining fixture.
Social media has been littered with supporters of Barcelona questioning the decision to allow so many of the club's top players to depart in one fell swoop but perhaps now they will understand their manager's logic.
Barca, already eliminated from the EFL Cup they won so impressively last season, will surely now find it even more difficult to mount a credible league challenge - something they have struggled to do for several seasons - whilst attempting to emulate their Champions League success of last year also now looks an increasingly difficult task.
In further transfer news Edwards confirmed that he had rejected an approach for star striker Gabriel Jesus and that the Brazilian was not available 'at any cost'.
The Catalonia based club have moved on players with greater experience and talent for younger less abled replacements so it remains to be seen what impact the deal will have on the fortunes of the team.
Leaving Barca at the end of this week will be 27 year old goalkeeper David Raya, 28 year old English defender Ben White, 29 year old Spanish centre back Diego Llorente and 28 year old Cameroon international defensive midfielder André-Frank Zambo Anguissa who the club shelled out over £200m for in last season's FFO auction.
To replace them Barca will welcome in 22 year old Georgian goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili, 22 year old Dutch defender Micky Van de Ven, 30 year old Dutch right back Rick Karsdorp and finally 23 year old Argentinian midfielder Enzo Fernández. The Spanish side will also receive a £5m fee as part of the deal.
Manager Graeme Edwards spoke earlier today to explain his rationale behind the deal and how it had come about to begin with
"We were approached by Sam Bradwell the Celtic manager yesterday morning and to begin with it was to discuss the possibility of exchanging Anguissa and Fernandez which is something we had first discussed several weeks ago. Anguissa is unquestionably the better player but the trade off for us was to get in a talented younger replacement. We have a number of experienced players in our squad and we are very much conscious that the way the landscape has changed in FFO recently with seasonal ageing, we really needed to try and bring in some younger players"
The Scot continued "The initial discussion surrounding those two players quickly accelerated and before we knew it Sam was offering a multi player exchange. At first we were a little reluctant as the players we would be losing are very much key players to us and are pivotal in the way that we like to play. But the more thought I gave it the more I realised that in order to get in younger bodies it was always going to mean we'd have to sacrifice some of our better players and take a hit in the short term in terms of ability. Sam is a manager I get on very well with and discussions continued throughout the day and into the evening upon which we finally agreed to do the deal. Celtic agreeing to pay us a fee of £5m on top was enough to sweeten things as we aren't particularly flush with cash as things stand"
The departing players, who have all helped contribute to a solid start to the season for Barca, will get the opportunity to say farewell to the home support on Friday night when Derek Hughes brings his star studded Galactico laden Roma side to Camp Nou for what should be a highly entertaining fixture.
Social media has been littered with supporters of Barcelona questioning the decision to allow so many of the club's top players to depart in one fell swoop but perhaps now they will understand their manager's logic.
Barca, already eliminated from the EFL Cup they won so impressively last season, will surely now find it even more difficult to mount a credible league challenge - something they have struggled to do for several seasons - whilst attempting to emulate their Champions League success of last year also now looks an increasingly difficult task.
In further transfer news Edwards confirmed that he had rejected an approach for star striker Gabriel Jesus and that the Brazilian was not available 'at any cost'.