Deco makes Joan Laporta dance with a last-minute signing: 'Opportunity...'

There are no days of respite at Barça. The last few summers have turned into an adventure game in the culé environment, with unexpected moves and hardly any days of rest. July and August have become the busiest months for Barcelona fans, with Deco, who must have completely forgotten what it felt like to rest and sunbathe without any worries during the summer season. The beach, mojitos, and sunscreen are now part of the trunk of memories.

The truth is that, although at times the situation seemed to have gotten complicated, the transfer market has been highly satisfactory for Barça. The positions that needed to be strengthened have been reinforced and, overall, there is a better squad than last year. However, in a completely unexpected way, Barça has had to deal with the departure of one of the most important pieces in their plans, Iñigo Martínez.

The Basque defender accepted an offer from Al-Nassr when absolutely no one considered him one of the candidates to leave the culé ship. There had to be some important sale, but all the attention was on Ronald Araújo, Marc Casadó, or Fermín López. In any case, Barça has lost a key starter and has a significant gap in defense.

Wait or act, Barça's dilemma

In a squad designed to have four center-backs, there are now only three. Of these three, only one has a guaranteed spot in the starting eleven: Pau Cubarsí. Between the other two, Ronald Araújo and Andreas Christensen, they'll have to fight for the other spot. In case another defender is needed at any given time, the two backup full-backs, Eric García and Gerard Martín, are ready to take on that role. Jules Koundé could also handle it.

This is, without a doubt, the initial plan and what we've all taken for granted; at least, until the market opens again in January. However, the portal Fichajes.net claims that Deco is drawing up another strategy that could shake up Barça's current affairs in the final days of the transfer window. According to this source, the sporting director is looking for a young defender who can already arrive in Barcelona to serve as the fourth center-back with a reserve team contract.

For now, no name has come up that could meet these conditions, but Barça will look for the ideal man until the end of the transfer window. Of course, the expenditure allocated to this hypothetical operation will be as minimal as possible, since the most important thing now is to register the new signings before the start of LaLiga. The matter with Joan García has already been solved, but with Marcus Rashford there's still work to do.