Pep Guardiola hails ‘extraordinary' Barcelona transfer target
Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola has early this week confirmed his appreciation for the talents of a leading member of the transfer wishlist at former club Barcelona.
The player in question? Joan García.
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The name of goalkeeper Joan has of course dominated the headlines across all of Europe over recent weeks.
This comes amid the understanding that the 24-year-old, fresh off a spectacular campaign on the books of Espanyol, has been identified as a summer target on the part of a number of high-profile clubs.
Chief amongst Joan's suitors are the aforementioned Barcelona, considered the current favourites to strike a deal for the talented shot-stopper.
And one individual of the opinion that the Blaugrana would be securing for themselves a top-level player in the case of landing Joan, is the aforementioned Pep Guardiola.
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Speaking during an exchange with the media on Monday, Guardiola was drawn on both Joan's talents, and the alleged interest of Manchester City in the Spaniard.
And the former Barca headmaster went on to explain:
'I think he's a very good goalkeeper. According to the media, City is interested in 500 players! I don't know what will happen. But I've been told he's an extraordinary goalkeeper. All the reports we have point in that direction.'
Conor Laird – GSFN
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New York Times
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How will Barcelona's financial situation affect their transfers this summer?
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Ahead of the end of the club's financial year on June 30, The Athletic sums up the current nature of Barca's situation and attempts to predict what may happen between now and the end of the transfer window in late August… as well as explaining why a set of VIP seats at the Camp Nou could be key. On May 19, Laporta told Catalan TV3 show 'La Nit dels Campions' that Barca's total income for the 2024-25 season would be 'around €950million' ($1billion or £802m at current exchange rates) and predicted that their budget for 2025-26 would be 'more than €1bn'. Asked whether new signings would be arriving, Laporta was coy but suggested the squad would be strengthened. 'First we have to assess what we have, and then we'll reinforce some positions,' Laporta replied. Sporting director Deco and Flick have both spoken about adding more attacking players to the squad, while Laporta told TV3 that goalkeeper was a position they were looking at. Espanyol 'keeper Joan Garcia is Barca's top target, as The Athletic reported in Barca's Transfer DealSheet on Tuesday. For some years now, the problem for Barca has not been finding significant money to buy players, but registering many of these signings with La Liga. The problem for Barca is that they have yet to really resolve the club's past financial problems — including at least €1.3bn of debt from when Laporta returned as president in 2021. Another issue is that the short-term solutions — often called levers — previously deployed to raise money to spend on transfers have not always been accepted by La Liga, who want the club to be run in a more sustainable way. Barca have regularly viewed this as unfair limitation on their activities, and looked to find creative ways to register players — such as when Olmo and Victor were registered for the first half of the 2024-25 campaign using a rule that allows for the temporary replacement of players ruled out through long-term injuries (in that case defender Andreas Christensen). Advertisement Last April, the Spanish government's High Council of Sports (CSD) sports court forced La Liga to register Olmo and Victor to play for Barca for the remainder of 2024-25. That CSD ruling did not question Spanish football's financial controls, but stated the joint committee formed by La Liga and the Spanish football federation (RFEF) did not have the power to revoke Olmo and Victor's licenses in early January. 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The bumper new contract recently signed with Lamine Yamal, which runs until 2031 and makes the 17-year-old one of the club's top earners will not be endangered by any issues over the salary limit. Key here is a change made to La Liga's rules last November, which allows clubs to improve the contracts of young players whose performances at senior level mean their value has substantially increased. The idea is to ensure emerging stars at clubs in financial difficulties are not immediately tempted away by the offer of pay rises elsewhere. The amount paid 'above' the current club's salary limit to this young player is then subtracted from the total available for wages and transfers in future years. So no matter what happens with the VIP seats or anything else this summer, Barca fans can be assured Yamal is tied to the Camp Nou long term. Although adding his bumper new salary — at potentially €40m a year — now means even less wiggle room in coming seasons. 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