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Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu is one of the most criticised football chiefs in world football at the moment. The Catalan took over the reins of Sandro Rosell in January 2014 after the former president stepped down amidst allegations of tax fraud during the infamous Neymar case.
Since his appointment, Barcelona have established a stronghold on LaLiga Santander, winning four of the six LaLiga titles available to them in that period, along with as many Copas del Rey. However, their failures, and pretty significant ones at that, lie elsewhere.
Barcelona's embarrassing eliminations from Europe time and again have raised questions over the club's UEFA Champions League credentials. More so, their poor squad planning, questionable decisions in the transfer market, and reckless spending have all been issues that have plagued the Blaugrana.
The 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich has all but ensured that the club will go through an overhaul to compete for top honours again after suffering their first trophyless season since 2008. That would effectively mean disposing of the ample amount of deadwood in the squad and replacing them with young blood — something that Barcelona have failed to do over the last few years.
Here, we take a look at the five worst signings made under the leadership of Barcelona's 40th president, Josep Maria Bartomeu.
#5 Ousmane Dembele | €138m
It would be harsh to blame Bartomeu, or in fact, any football executive for the on-field failures of any given signing they make. However, Ousmane Dembele's move has brought next to nothing to this Barcelona side, and has spent more time on the treatment table than he has on the pitch.
The outrageously talented winger was once seen as a player who could go on to emulate some of the greatest players to grace the game and create a legacy at the Nou Camp. However, Dembele's discipline has continuously been in question, be it in the form of turning up late to training, or looking after his physical well-being.
The 23-year-old has missed just over 80 games (!) since he arrived at the club in the summer of 2017 in the wake of Neymar's departure from the Nou Camp. In terms of days missed due to injury, Dembele tallies at over 500 days spent on the sidelines. The Frenchman has managed just 35 LaLiga Santander starts in his three-year stay at the club.
Barcelona are reportedly looking for buyers to offload one of their most expensive players this summer. While Dembele has an ample amount of time left to kickstart his career elsewhere, it's safe to say that Borussia Dortmund — his former club — emerged as the only winners from his move to the Nou Camp. His hefty price-tag and inability to offload him (so far) have made it a disappointing signing.
#4 Samuel Umtiti | €25m
Not too many people were aware of Samuel Umtiti's talent until Barcelona shelled out €25m on the Frenchman just two days after making his competitive debut for France. Almost immediately after his signing, the world was suddenly in awe of the composed left-footed defender at the heart of UEFA Euro 2016 finalists France's defence.
After a respectable couple of seasons at the Nou Camp and a successful FIFA World Cup campaign where Umtiti was a staple in the first XI, things quickly unravelled for the talented centre-half. In truth, ever since June 3, 2018 — the day Barcelona rewarded Umtiti with a contract extension — things have never been the same for the Frenchman.
Since the date mentioned above, Umtiti has gone on to miss a staggering 45 games in two years due to recurring injury issues. Even when the 26-year-old took to the pitch, he looked a pale shadow of the uber-talented defender they signed from Olympique Lyon.
Much like Dembele, the reasons for Umtiti's decline and an influx of injury woes remain a mystery, and Barcelona are actively trying to find him a new club at the earliest juncture possible. The World Cup winner went from being tipped to be the heir to Javier Mascherano's Nou Camp throne to being offered to clubs such as West Ham and Everton.
Also read: Barcelona shortlist three managers to replace Quique Setien
#3 Kevin-Prince Boateng | Loan
The two Frenchmen who feature above this name were once players who showed great promise, enough for Barcelona to spend big money on them and tie them down to hefty contracts. However, the very fact that a loan signing — for which the former LaLiga champions shelled out a mere €1m — features on this list is a sheer testament to how bizarre this deal was right from the offset.
Kevin-Prince Boateng is a cult figure who has journeyed across four of Europe's five biggest football leagues and is currently on the books of Fiorentina. He was brought into the Barcelona squad on a loan deal from Sassuolo in the winter of 2019, but failed to leave as much as a metaphorical footprint on the prestigious Nou Camp turf.
The Ghanian played a grand total of 240 LaLiga minutes over three games for Barcelona, 90 of which came in quite literally a dead rubber fixture against Celta Vigo after Ernesto Valverde's men sealed the title. His most notable contribution, perhaps, a trademark unnecessary yellow card he picked up in those 90 minutes.
With no goals, no assists, no noticeable impact in the build-up and an overall lack of impetus of any sort, it remains one of the most un-Barcelona-esque signings made by the Catalans. His spell at the Nou Camp is one that neither the player nor the club would look back at fondly. By all accounts, it was a genuinely baffling signing.
#2 Antoine Griezmann | €120m
Speaking of baffling, there cannot possibly have been a more high-profile mismatch of playing style between a club and player than Antoine Griezmann and Barcelona. This isn't to say that either party are undeserving of each other. The Blaugrana are one of the most accomplished clubs in Spanish and European history, while Griezmann etched his name into history books after leading France to a World Cup win.
That being said, in terms of what the club needed in the summer of 2019 and what they purchased, it could possibly be one of the most bizarre signings in recent times. The charismatic Frenchman has found enormous success playing off a more physically imposing figure such as Diego Costa or Olivier Giroud. This has enabled him to exploit the central spaces left by defenders concerned about the target man, playing the role of a creative midfielder-second striker hybrid.
In other terms, he's a less capable version of a certain Argentine who wears FC Barcelona's armband. Difference in quality aside, Lionel Messi and Griezmann occupy relatively similar spaces on the pitch, due to which the French forward was pushed out wide — a role that he hasn't carried out since his Real Sociedad days.
With nine goals and four assists in 35 LaLiga games to show for, Griezmann's output was impacted directly due to this change in role, effectively nullifying the one thing he was synonymous with — scoring goals and creating space for his teammates. It remains to be seen how long he has left at the Nou Camp after a truly dismal debut season with the former champions.
#1 Philippe Coutinho | €145m
Where do we begin with this one? Unless and until there's a remontada of seismic measure of Philippe Coutinho's short career at the Nou Camp, the Brazilian will go down as the worst signing ever made by the club in their illustrious history. The former Liverpool man moved to Barcelona in the winter of 2018 for a staggering club-record fee of €145m under inauspicious circumstances.
Barcelona felt that Coutinho was the answer to their lack of a single creative presence in the final third who isn't named Lionel Messi. The Brazilian had a shaky yet respectable start to life as a Culer, scoring eight goals and setting up a further five in 18 LaLiga appearances. However, the following season, matters went from bad to worse for both parties.
Then-manager Valverde was insistent on playing Coutinho in a wider role to field a structured, robust midfield and uphold their defensive integrity in the middle. This caused the playmaker all sorts of trouble, and he ultimately failed to adapt at the Nou Camp, resulting in just five goals and two assists in 34 LaLiga fixtures. Coutinho was then shipped away to Bayern Munich on loan, and he came back to haunt them even more.
The 28-year-old attacker came on as a substitute for the Bavarians and, with the score already at 5-2, Coutinho needed just 15 minutes on the pitch to mastermind three more goals for his temporary employers.
His two goals and an assist in an explosive cameo was the icing on the cake for Bayern, much like they were knockout blows for the Blaugrana. What's worse is that should Coutinho win the UCL with the Germans, Barcelona will be set to shell out a further €5m to Liverpool as part of his clause.
All in all, it is one of the most remarkably poor signings in all of football history, let alone that of the mighty Catalans. Much like in the case of Dembele, Coutinho's former club Liverpool were perhaps the only winners from this blockbuster deal, enabling them to purchase Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker. The rest, as they say, is history.
Also read: 5 players who destroyed their parent clubs when on loan
