“‘Dreams are free, but footballers are not,’ said Barcelona’s sporting director Jordi Cruyff in early December, responding to questions about whether the club would be able to sign any new players in January. … Of course, an apparently impossible financial situation has not necessarily precluded transfer spending in recent times at the Camp Nou. Despite the Catalan club being over €1billion (£880million, $1billion) in debt last summer, they still managed to activate various financial levers which allowed them to spend over €160m on signing new players, while also adding about €150m a year to the wage bill. …”
The Athletic