Barcelona crisis nears breaking point, big transfers not happening fast enough

FC Barcelona is well and truly in the middle of a crisis. The club is so far unable to register its new signings such as Sergio Aguero and Memphis Depay among others, due to the fact that they have not been able to offload enough high-salary earners as of yet. More importantly, they have not been able to free up space in their salary cap allocation to re-sign Lionel Messi.

The Camp Nou has not been able to open its exit doors wide enough so far this summer, and the club may soon be in the middle of a massive crisis if they don't manage to move players out fast enough.

The exact details of the La Liga imposed salary cap have not been made public but according to Goal, Barcelona will only be allowed to spend in the vicinity of around €160m (£137.5m/$189m). That's a massive reduction from the €382 million (£342m/$432m) they were allowed to spend last season.

For those unfamiliar, the La Liga's financial Fair Play regulations limit a team's spending ability on wages and transfers in direct proportion to the club's earnings. It is widely known that FC Barcelona is over €1 billion in total debt. Hence, the massive drop in their salary cap.

La Liga president Javier Tebas refuses to make an exception for Barcelona and even for Messi. He believes that doing so will only make the club more vulnerable to becoming even deeper in debt. "There are regulations that exist and must be abided by. They have to adapt and find a solution within them. That's what I have talked about with Joan (Laporta)," he said.

Tebas also reiterated that the clubs themselves approved of the regulations. Other clubs have had similar problems before, and no exceptions were made. He also said that La Liga lost big names like Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo before, and they are not afraid to lose Messi now if Barcelona fails to extend his contract.

Apart from Messi, other new signings remain in limbo such as Memphis Depay, Sergio Aguero, Eric Garcia and Emerson Royal. Barcelona has already offloaded the likes of Francisco Trincao, Junior Firpo, Jean-Clair Todibo, Konrad de la Fuente, and Matheus Fernandes, but their combined value is barely enough to make a dent in the amount that Barcelona needs to free up.

The club still needs to show the door to valuable players like Antoine Griezmann, Philippe Coutinho, Ousmane Dembele and Samuel Umtiti. However, not many clubs have the financial capability to sign players with high price tags. On top of that, other clubs know that Barcelona is getting desperate. this means that many are hoping for further reductions on the price tags.