Why won’t LaLiga allow Barcelona to sign players in January?

With a week to go before the end of the winter transfer window, LaLiga has given Barcelona informal notice that they won’t be able to sign any new players in January. Despite selling Memphis Depay to Atlético Madrid, the transfer hasn’t freed up enough money to allow the Catalans to replace him, with LaLiga chief Javier Tebas refusing to bend the competition’s FFP rules, which are designed to prevent Barça from getting into more financial trouble in coming seasons. That means that there is no margin for them to make any new signings as things stand.

Will Gavi and Ronald Araújo ‘sign for’ Barcelona in January?

What hasn’t been ruled out though is Gavi and Ronald Araújo, both very much key figures in Xavi Hernández’s side, finally being registered as first-team rather than B team players before 31 January. Barça and LaLiga have been in talks to ensure that changing their registration wouldn’t result in the infringement of FFP regulations. Although it’s a relatively minor issue, both players have signed contract extensions which stipulate they are fully-fledged members of the first team and Barcelona would like to have them registered as such as soon as possible. President Joan Laporta had initially been pessimistic about the possibilities of doing so but the ongoing negotiations with LaLiga signal that there is a chance it could happen.

Potential Barcelona moves for Yannick Carrasco and Marcelo Brozovic off

The bad news given to Barça by LaLiga has been reflected in the noises coming out of the club. When asked about the prospect of replacing Depay a couple of weeks ago, Xavi’s intentions were clear: “If someone asks to leave, someone else will come in.” Names such as Yannick Carrasco, Gonçalo Guedes and Marcelo Brozovic were all heavily linked with moves to Camp Nou but, within the space of just a few days, those rumours have been put to bed and the club’s stance had changed. “It’ll be tough for us to sign someone,” claimed the Barça head coach before the weekend victory over Getafe, which director Mateu Alemany also backed up. We now know that ‘impossible’ would have been more appropriate than ‘tough.’.