Even though it is hailed by many as one of the world’s most successful teams in history, there’s no denying the fact that Barcelona is currently in a major crisis as the club struggles to find its identity and rise to the top of the ranks.
It hasn’t been quite competitive in the Champions League nor LaLiga and to change that, the team has come up with the NOW Strategy in which it put a major budget to sign top-rated players who are destined to have a positive impact.
However, is the strategy worth it in the long run? That is exactly what we are going to talk about in this article. Let’s dive into the details.
Fans are Willing to Bet That Barcelona Will Come Out on Top
Of course, fans will always believe in their clubs, especially when it comes to Barcelona. After all, this is a well-established team that employs tons of experts in the field, so what can go wrong, right? Some of Barca’s fans are so convinced that the new signings will be contributing to the team that they’ve already placed their bets on Barcelona winning LaLiga and CL.
They register at reputable online sportsbooks such as Kwiff as they feature tons of betting options and great odds. After registering, punters claim welcome offers which they then use to wager on Barcelona. Kwiff has a welcome package and by reading more information about the Kwiff welcome offer, you will be able to determine whether it is worth claiming or not.
Why the NOW Strategy May Be Risky Long-Term?
The football world may have noticed, but Barcelona has been a bit busy signing established stars in the past couple of years. The biggest highlight here is the fact that it wasn’t even shy to spend money.
It spent more than $300 million to sign Dembele, Griezmann and Coutinho and most recently, Lewandowski joined the team as well. As mentioned earlier, the club’s NOW strategy includes signing high-profile stars for millions, but that may be risky long-term and here’s why.
The past several years have shown that the strategy of spending a lot of money doesn’t work as it should. A vast majority of the stars that the club signed failed to live up to the expectations. Pjanic, De Jong, Griezmann, Dembele and others performed under the expectations.
Many of them even left the club shortly after joining. Such was the case with Griezmann, a player who was set to help Barcelona go back to its glory days. The NOW strategy has so far been a complete failure.
Not only that, but it led to other major problems such as wage limits. This problem was the reason why Messi was forced to leave the club and join PSG. Most recently, De Jong is having a lot of issues with the club over unpaid wages.
Reportedly, De Jong is on the brink of taking legal action against Barcelona because the club owes him millions, which it states that it does not have, but in the meantime, it splashed a lot of funds to sign Lewandowski and several other major stars.
So, as you can see, the hundreds of millions that the club is currently spending are causing nothing more than trouble. That is the reason why Barca’s strategy could be risky in the future and could lead the team to more serious trouble, one of which is explained next.
Portsmouth’s Case Should Be a Lesson
More than a decade ago, Premier League’s Portsmouth decided to adopt a similar strategy to Barcelona. The club was facing financial issues and as a way to solve them, it opted out for a short-term solution – buy several big names and hope that they will help the club grow.
Additionally, it hoped that it will attract more fans to the stands, all of which will spend money to buy tickets and hence, boost the club’s profits.
However, this strategy did not pay at all. On the contrary, it was the beginning of Portsmouth’s demise. Due to financial instability, the club was relegated from the Premier League and it went from a well-established top-tier team to a low-league club that hardly anyone knows.
Now, we’re not saying that Barca could face the same reality, but we are trying to make an argument of how the wrong strategies, especially financial ones, could cause massive long-term problems.
