Barcelona beat Valencia! Here's the 2024/25 Season Preview!

Valencia 1-2 Barcelona - La Liga

Barcelona got their season off to a winning start by coming from behind to beat Valencia 1-2 at Mestalla. So now is the perfect time to do the season preview!

“But 97 Passes,” we hear you wail, “how can you preview a season that has already begun?” Well, dear reader, here’s how:

We just do it.

A season preview that comes before the actual season is full of idle speculation based on not too much. Even if you wait until after pre-season you’re still guessing because friendlies are not competitive action.

You need to get a bit of evidence, a bit of dirt in the studs, and then you can get at least an inkling of an idea about what the season could be about.

And Barcelona certainly got dirt in their studs in Mestalla on Saturday night. They had to run around and chase their hosts for the first-half as things looked about as miserable as they did during the 0-3 Gamper Trophy defeat to Monaco. The score was 1-1 but they were somewhat fortunate to not be further down.

But the side came out of the half-time break energised by whatever pablum new coach Hansi Flick imparted and dominated the rest of the game. They only scored once more, but it should have been more and was enough to get the opening day victory!

BARCELONA 2024/25 SEASON PREVIEW

Barcelona head into the 2024/25 season as deposed champions of Spain, with multiple key midfielders out injured, having been rejected and/or failed to sign their biggest transfer target of the summer, with their best defender in a contract dispute and injured until 2025 anyway, and with their big name signing of last season whinging about his team-mates to rivals and likely to be leaving the club.

All that plus facing down the monstrous Hydra of Jude Bellingham, Vinicius Jr., Rodrygo and now Kylian Mbappé over in Madrid (or the two-headed Orthrus of Alexander Sorloth and Julian Alvarez in another part of Madrid).

To say the vibes were dour was something of an understatement!

A win against Valencia has certainly buyoed spirits, as wins tend to do, but it hasn’t changed the main narrative underpinning Barcelona: they are still a side in flux.

That flux has led to frustration among the fanbase, as Joan Laporta’s big talk has yet to lead to sustained success on the pitch. Barcelona won La Liga in 2022/23 and captured the Spanish Supercup in that same season, but failed to capitalise on that in 2023/24 — and worse, were just 45 bad minutes away from a realistic shot of making the Champions League final.

See that second-half against PSG out (Cancelo made sure that didn’t happen) and then it’s just an eminently winnable semi-final against Borussia Dortmund standing between Barcelona and a Clásico Champions League final.

Ah, the fine margins!

MEET THE NEW BOSS

Xavi, who had said he was leaving mid-season only to be convinced to stay by Joan Laporta before being a bit too pessimistic in a press conference, departed as manager. A shame to see a club legend leave, but his replacement was plenty intriguing.

Hans Dieter “Hansi” Flick replaced Xavi as the Barcelona manager. Flick famously led Bayern Munich to a Treble win in 2019/20, including that 8-2 win over Barcelona.

But of course, due to the COVID-induced truncation of that Champions League campaign — instead of home and away quarter and semi-finals spread out over a couple months; the quarters, semis and final itself took place over one week in Lisbon — it’s was a different kind of achievement to the marathon all other Trebles are.

The fact that their 2020/21 Treble bid was derailed by an injury to Robert Lewandowski causing Flick’s Bayern to miss a boatload of Lewandowski-shaped chances against PSG perfectly illustrated why the 2019/20 Treble was completed on “easy mode” and should be regarded with more scepticism.

Still, Flick’s appointment came with something exciting.

GET FIT OR DIE TRYING

Barcelona’s squad at the end of last season felt hugely short of where it needed to be. But in truth it wasn’t actually that far off — if everyone was fit.

Injuries played such a huge part in Xavi’s misfortunes as Barcelona boss. Even in 2021/22, their Champions League group stage exit came because Ronald Araujo, Andreas Christensen and Jules Kounde all got injured at the same time resulting in those two dismal results against Inter.

And last season? Things began with Pedri getting injured. Then when he returned Frenkie was hurt. Then just as Frenkie was returning Gavi went down for the whole season in November. Balde followed suit in early 2025. Marc-André Ter Stegen, Ferran Torres and Raphinha both had spells out as well. Pedri struggled with his fitness for the entire campaign as well. Even Lewandowski had issues — hell, the only players who didn’t get hurt were 16 year-old Lamine Yamal and 32 year-old Ilkay Gundogan!

Whatever Xavi’s tactical deficiences were or were not, what was clear was that he and his team couldn’t keep his players healthy or even in particularly good physical shape.

Hansi Flick comes in with a reputation for obsessing over physical fitness, and indeed his Bayern side were in tremendous shape. The pictures of his players getting ripped like they’re about to star in a Marvel film did the rounds on social media back in the day, and an increased focus on fitness is what the club needs.

In addition to this (and to be fair these moves were on the books before Flick replaced Xavi) Julio Tous, who previously worked with fitness freak Antonio Conte, is going to be Barcelona’s athletic coach along with German Fernandez. Then Rafa Maldonado and Pepe Conde will be fitness coaches.

These men are all experts in their field, and by simply keeping Barcelona’s fancy boy midfield playmakers and various other young starlets in a healthy condition (and hopefully returning defensive colossus Ronald Araujo to full health after he picked up an injury at the Copa America that will keep him out until 2025 — a genuinely massive absence given the Uruguayan’s quality) the Blaugrana squad improves immensely from the nonsensical state it was in for 23/24.

Then you get to actual transfers. And, well…

TRANSFERS IN:

Dani Olmo from RB Leipzig — €55m

Pau Victor from Girona — €3m

Signing Dani Olmo seemed strange at the time because, as good as Olmo is, he has been plagued by injury issues ever since 2021. But it now makes more sense in light of the Blaugrana’s attempts to oust Ilkay Gundogan (more on that in a second).

Pau Victor is a smart, low-cost signing. The forward did well for the B-team last season while on loan, and picking him up for a low fee allows him to be a back-up in attack to Robert Lewandowski (while also able to play on the wings). As he showed in pre-season, he can press and score goals and Barcelona need both of those things.

TRANSFERS OUT:

Sergi Roberto released

Marcos Alonso released

Sergino Dest to PSV — free transfer

Oriol Romeu to Girona — loan

Marc Guiu to Chelsea — €6m

Chadi Riad to Real Betis — €9m

Julian Araujo to Bournemouth — €10m

Barcelona have been separating the wheat from the chaff with their sales this summer, offloading players who haven’t made the grade or who are unlikely to. Marc Guiu is the exception here but look, when a player wants to chase money you’ve just got to let them. Guiu will likely find himself further from the first-team as Stamford Bridge than he would have been at Camp Nou but hey, what can you do?

This list should be growing soon as Barcelona are actively working on the exits of Clement Lenglet, Vitor Roque and, yes, Ilkay Gundogan.

ILKAY GUNDOGAN AND FINANCIAL FAIR PLAY

It seems genuinely bizarre that Barcelona are going to sell Ilkay Gundogan, but yes, Barcelona are going to sell Ilkay Gundogan.

The German joined the Blaugrana fresh off a Treble win with Manchester City (who most assuredly felt his absence last season) and was an almost instant success.

Though he didn’t replicate his goalscoring heroics in Catalunya, Gundogan created more chances than anyone else in La Liga and had the second-most assists to boot.

Sure, he was an uncompromising figure whose candor with the media was a source of friction in the notoriously political Barcelona ecosphere. His criticism of his team-mates after big losses to Real Madrid and PSG caused issues, but no one was really mad at him (although he should have kept his criticisms between him, his team-mates and the coaches) as much as they were mad at the losses. And his winning mentality and work ethic could not be questioned at all.

Gundogan was one of the three best midfielders across the entire league and looked set to be a big figure in Barcelona’s near-future. And now… he won’t be.

Why? Because Barcelona want to shift his sizeable wages so they can register new signings and ease their financial fair play burden. And even though playing for Barcelona was a dream, Ilkay Gundogan isn’t a jerk and doesn’t want to be a hindrance for the Blaugrana.

Also, if we’re being real, he is probably longing for the greater stability and structure of Pep Guardiola’s petro-project — Guardiola is arguably the greatest manager of all-time, a ramshackle Barcelona cannot compare!

And this is where Dani Olmo’s signing starts to make sense. Because if you’re getting rid of Gundogan, then you need to bring in someone to replace him. That’s Olmo, ok. And Gundogan’s departure allows him to be registered, as well as any other signings.

But why are the club still needing to shed players for salary purposes?

Where is the Nike deal that got reported in Forbes? The one that was supposed to pay them a €100m signing bonus and €120m a year for a 10 years? That deal (along with the €40m deal agreed with Aramark to cover the sale of Barcelona Studios) would have sorted almost all of Barcelona’s problems out and returned them to the hallowed 1:1 status — where they can spend €1 for every €1 they bring in — rather than the restrictive 1:4 (€1 for every €4 brought in) designed to save La Liga clubs from spending themselves into oblivion. But despite being reported in April here we are in August and the Nike deal nowhere to be seen. Did it even ever exist? Will Barcelona ever return to 1:1?

There’s no doubt that Joan Laporta inherited a difficult situation and decided against austerity in favour of an aggressive and bold solution — but this kind of contract juggling feels unsustainable in an open market like football. It works in the NFL because that’s a closed league with a hard salary cap and everyone plays by the same rules. In football where you’re competing against corporate megagiants, state-backed clubs and whatever ungodly combination of those two Real Madrid are… you need to be able to spend. You can’t keep relying on La Masia to bail you out!

Or can you?

THE INFINITE GENIUS OF LA MASIA

Barcelona ended their title-winning 2022/23 season with three major needs:

• Defensive midfield

• Right-back

• Left-wing

• Right-wing

They signed João Cancelo to fill the right-back slot, though he ended up playing left-back as that suited Xavi’s style of play more. Then when La Masia’s Alejandro Balde — a La Masia graduate who saved the club having to spend tens of millions to replace the departed Jordi Alba — got injured, Cancelo was the team’s only left-back.

They signed João Felix to fill the left-wing slot and while he started brightly, he faded fast and as a result Barcelona let his loan expire.

They tried to sign Martin Zubimendi and Joshua Kimmich for the defensive midfield slot and were rebuffed by both players and their clubs. So they opted to be budget conscious and picked up Oriol Romeu for cheap.

Romeu proved to be far from up to the task of playing for his boyhood club, so the club stumbled through the season relying on Gavi to hold the midfield together. Then Gavi got hurt and the club was in big trouble until Xavi started using Andreas Christensen there. And he was a good stopgap but clearly a stopgap, they needed a permanent solution and would have to return to the market in summer 2024.

They tried to sign Arda Guler to fill the right-wing slot, but Mesut Özil made a phone call and the young Turk chose to join Real Madrid instead. Barcelona were left with just Raphinha, who can’t dribble, to play right-wing.

Enter 16 year-old Lamine Yamal.

He impressed in pre-season, tearing Sergio Reguilon apart in the Joan Gamper trophy. He picked up an impressive assist away to Villarreal on matchday three and never looked back. Records tumbled at the teenage prodigy’s feet, and he capped it all off with a sublime showing for Spain at Euro 2024. A wondergoal against France in the semi-final and a delightful assist for the opening goal in the final, and Lamine Yamal won an international trophy the day after he turned 17. Preposterous.

Thanks to Lamine Yamal’s brilliance, and the impending return to fitness of Alejandro Balde, Barcelona’s needs after 2023/24 were:

• Right-back (back-up)

• Left-back (back-up)

• Defensive midfield

• Left-wing

La Masia had saved them at left-back and right-wing, and it once again stepped up to the plate to provide back-up full-backs with Alex Vallé, Hector Fort and Gerard Martin all performing well in pre-season and giving Hansi Flick enough confidence to not need to sign anyone.

Defensive midfield and left-wing were the big needs, though.

Yet the club spend the summer chasing only Nico Williams for the left-wing role. They didn’t manage to get their man and will need to find a budget alternative.

What of defensive midfield? The position where Xavi was imploring the club to spend upwards of €60m to replace Sergio Busquets.

Enter 17 year-old Marc Bernal.

Standing 1.91 metres tall, Bernal has the potential to cut a truly imposing figure at the base of midfield. As it is he has a real presence about him, and a Busquets-esque ability to sniff out danger and position himself correctly to stop it.

He’s not as physically dominant as Busquets was, nor as defensively savvy. But at 17 he’s shown such enormous potential that Hansi Flick is happy to run with him as the club’s main defensive midfielder.

Obviously Christensen remains as an option, as does Eric Garcia back from his loan to Girona, but the teenager has the starting job it seems. It’s an incredible show of faith from Fick, but Bernal has all the quality to own the role for a decade or more and showed as much on debut against Valencia.

It wasn’t a flawless display, but for a 17 year-old making his La Liga debut away from home in a hostile environment it was sensationally good. The promise of Marc Bernal is colossal, and that could be another €100m saved by La Masia.

This is the beauty of the Barcelona system of play and the way La Masia is integrated with the first-team. Kids who may have otherwise gone overlooked are able to excel beyond belief. Partnering Bernal all pre-season and in Mestalla has been Marc Casado, who is “only” 20 years-old but looks the kind of rock solid can-do-it-all midfielder that every competitive squad needs.

As players return Casado will likely become a back-up, but don’t rule out an impressive showing in that capacity, similar to what Fermin Lopez managed to do last season before going on to win the Euros and Olympic Gold in a single summer, scoring 6 times at the Paris games including a brace in the final. In a game where three of the starters (Fermin, Garcia and Pau Cubarsi) and over half the starting XI for Spain had roots at La Masia. After the Euros final where two of the starters had La Masia roots and those two starters set-up both of Spain’s goals.

La Masia stays solving Spain and Barcelona’s problems.

Hell, don’t rule out Dani Rodriguez — who missed pre-season because he was helping Spain win the U-19 Euros — from busting out and solving Barcelona’s left-wing problem as well. That would be perfectly in keeping with how things have gone under Joan Laporta, with La Masia repeatedly rescuing FC Barcelona.

THE BATTLES TO COME

So, what does this all mean for Barcelona’s chances in 2024/25? Well, it’s very much a “wait and see” kind of situation.

The squad hasn’t been improved through signings (though the window has yet to shut) but with young players getting better each year and an increased emphasis on physical health keeping those players fit more often… could Barcelona challenge for major honours this season?

Sure. Why not?

Lamine Yamal is a miracle and Robert Lewandowski has enough stubbornness and spite that everyone deciding he’s washed could just motivate him for one last goal-getting bonanza. Gundogan’s departure stings but a fit Pedri is as good as he is and maybe better. Gavi’s impending return feels like the bit in AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR when Thor¹ comes smashing down into Wakanda and just wrecks everyone

Barcelona need a lot of pieces to fall into place for them to realistically challenge for honours. But those pieces falling into place isn’t the most inconceivable thing in the world. The club is well set up for things to go right, and if they do go right there’s no telling just how far Barcelona can fly this season.

1. Yes, that battle did end in a horrendous defeat because of Thor’s lust for revenge — don’t read too much into the analogy, it’s just a fun reference!)