The transfer market began in May with the arrival of Haaland at Manchester City and ended with the return of Aubameyang to London to join Chelsea after Mbappé decided to remain in Paris and Lewandowski ended up at the Camp Nou.
The levers of Barça activated by its critical economic situation and the money of the Premier have starred in a fair that has been surprisingly spectator Cristiano Ronaldo, the footballer who challenged the reign of Messi while he was in Madrid.
The league and European champion club, after all, anticipated Casemiro's departure for Manchester with the addition of Tchouameni.
Madrid's plan only required the change of some piece while Barça's demanded a profound transformation based on the ideology of a connoisseur of the house like Xavi.
The team that the coach inherited at the end of 2021 is very different from the one he will lead in the 2022-2023 season.
Today a line-up can be assembled with the additions: Iñaki Peña (recovered from Gatalasaray);
Bellerin (Betis-Arsenal), Koundé (Seville), Christensen (Chelsea), Marcos Alonso (Chelsea);
Kessié (Milan), Pablo Torre (Racing), Raphinha (Leeds) and Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) in addition to rehiring Dembélé and getting Pjanic back.
Up to seven of the 10 signings from last year have been dropped: Emerson, Kun Agüero, Demir, Adama Traoré, Alves, Luuk de Jong and Aubameyang.
Eric García, Ferran Torres and Memphis remain after their transfer or loan to Juventus failed.
Xavi has sacrificed Aubameyang, convinced as he was that he was the best alternative for Lewandowski, to win two full-backs like Marcos Alonso —son of Pichón Marcos— and Bellerin —who returns to the Camp Nou from Arsenal—.
The operation between Barça and Chelsea for Aubameyang and Alonso will become official this Friday and both players would be discharged with the release letter by their respective clubs, according to Barça.
They will also help improve the club's salary policy and recover the endorsement that the president Joan Laporta and the treasurer Ferran Olivé put in to sign up Koundé, the termination of Braithwaite's contract —incorporated by Espanyol after Barça paid the player 400,000 euros for the settlement—, and the transfers of Dest to Milan and Abde to Osasuna in addition to that of Umtiti to Lecce.
The possibility of dispensing with Alba was ruled out due to his refusal to play for Inter - the player is especially hurt with the club -, in the same way that there was no way to reach an agreement to lower the income of the best-paid players or nor to sell Frenkie de Jong to be able to incorporate Bernardo Silva,
The summer in Manchester has been as hectic as in Barcelona in a year conditioned by the World Cup and therefore by the need for internationals to be active to participate in the Qatar tournament in November.
United's activity has been marked by four issues: the tension caused by Cristiano Ronaldo's desire to leave the club, still with a year to go;
the difficulty in hiring a guaranteed midfielder;
the information about the sale of the club and the horrible start of the season in the Premier.
Erik Ten Hag precisely wanted to incorporate Barça player Frenkie de Jong, whom he had trained at Ajax.
Given the Dutchman's refusal, he explored other options such as Rabiot's with Juventus, until he ended up signing Casemiro.
United paid 70 million pounds (82.4 million euros), 60 fixed and 10 in variables, for the Brazilian, and ended up breaking the bank with the additions for 100 million of Antony, another of Ten Hag's former pupils at Ajax, in addition to Lisandro Martínez (57 million), Malacia (15) and Eriksen.
The crisis experienced after losing to Brighton and Brentford was attenuated after beating Liverpool at Old Trafford and prevailing last night 0-1 at Leicester.
Arthur to Liverpool
It is not easy for Klopp to stabilize the Anfield team either.
Liverpool were able to renew Salah and sign Darwin Núñez – they have also obtained the transfer of former Barça player Arthur Melo – after dispensing with Mané, Nagelsmann's new Bayern Munich striker to replace Lewandowski.
Until the Pole came the domino effect caused by Haaland.
The arrival of the Norwegian at City, as well as that of the Argentine Álvarez, caused the departures of Sterling, who occupies the place of Lukaku (Inter) at Chelsea, and Gabriel Jesus, who joined Zinchenko at Arsenal de Arteta, who was Guardiola's assistant and now leads the Premier.
The millions of the English and the mortgages of Barça entertained the market from start to finish until its end on 1-S.
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