Worst Barcelona signings of the Bartomeu era

If there is a figure who has been widely criticized as a football president in recent years, that has been Josep Maria Bartomeu. He was the FC Barcelona president from 2014 to 2020, with the club slowly descending into a period of decline and him being the main culprit for a lot of decisions that have hurt the club in the long run.

A lot of fans blame him for situations such as Lionel Messi's exit in the summer of 2021, but even more so, they blame him for some truly catastrophic signings. Several of these signings not only failed to impress at the Camp Nou but also hamstrung the club as far as finances go, which is something that makes their outcomes even more painful for the club.

Here we will now list four of the signings that Bartomeu was responsible for during this era.

Ousmane Dembele

While Neymar leaving for Paris Saint-Germain for 222 million was a massive negative surprise for the fans in the summer of 2017, they at least had the funds to find a worthy replacement for the Brazilian superstar. No player was ever going to fit the bill of such a talent so easily, but signing Ousmane Dembele, a gifted French winger from Borussia Dortmund, seemed like an interesting gamble, even if it came at the cost of 105 million plus a reported 40 million add-ons.

Dembele had great dribbling skills, was ambidextrous, and had time on his side to develop since he was only twenty years of age at the time. However, the Frenchman not only struggled with consistency when on the pitch but was also quite injury-prone, which ended up becoming his main curse during his six years in Barcelona.

Moreover, the fans began to voice their frustration at the player when it was revealed that he wasn't taking care of himself physically, and his injuries were a direct result of this. While he did have moments of brilliance under the different managers he had at the Camp Nou, the truth of the matter is that he never lived up to his potential during his time in Barcelona.

Philippe Coutinho

There is no denying that Philippe Coutinho's January 2018 transfer to FC Barcelona is not only one of the worst signings in the club's history, but also one of the worst in the history of football. This was another one of those attempts of wanting to replace Neymar at the Camp Nou but this compatriot of his didn't live up to the expectations.

Coutinho was never the most consistent performer at Liverpool nor the most gifted when it came to working off the balle, which was a combination that was doomed to fail at Barcelona. When considering Luis Suarez's slow decline, Dembele's inconsistency through injuries, and the loss of Neymar, Coutinho never truly made any position his own.

Perhaps the biggest example of how much of a mess this signing was is the fact he was loaned to Bayern Munich during the 2019/20 season and scored a brace against his parent club in the now-infamous 8-2 win for the Bavarians. It was a humiliating event for the Catalonian club, and only made the Brazilian even more despised among the Barca fans.

All of this while costing a total of £105 million rising to £142 million with various clauses being met. Definitely one of the biggest flops in the history of football, considering his price tag.

Antoine Griezmann

While most football fans agree that the Frenchman Antoine Griezmann has been one of the best players of the last decade or so, his 2019 signing to Barcelona, which cost 120 million because of his buy-out clause, had all the signs of a flop because of the context. It all began with the controversies of Atletico Madrid claiming that the Catalonian side didn't pay the entire fee, which was one of the first signs of the club's financial problems.

Moreover, while Barcelona was playing with two inside forwards on the sides and a striker, Griezmann struggled to have a defined position. He wasn't a winger or a traditional striker, and Barca never got the same capacity out of him as he had showed at Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid as a second striker. The club didn't have a clear vision for the player and was only signed out of desperation to boost the squad's quality.

Griezmann's output of 35 goals in 102 matches isn't the worst, but the player didn't make a major impact on the side and was mostly disliked by the Barcelona's most faithful fans. Moreover, the combination of his fee and his hefty salary added more issues to the institution's financial situation.

Malcom - here playing for Zenit St.Petersburg

Malcom

When considering that FC Barcelona paid Girondin Bordeaux a total of 40 million euros in the summer of 2018 for Malcom and was close to getting legal actions from AS Roma for hijacking their deal for the Brazilian winger, it is incredible that the player only stayed one year at the Camp Nou. It perfectly captures the side's lack of vision and what Bartomeu failed at as Barcelona's president.

The Brazilian failed to make an impact in the cub and was promptly sold to Zenit St.Petersburg the following summer, making the entire controversy of his signing all the more puzzling. It was clear that this player wasn't signed with a clear vision in mind, especially considering the mentioned prestigious signings of Dembele and Coutinho were already a part of the squad.

There is no denying that the likes of Arthur, Miralem Pjanic, and a few more players could qualify as candidates for this discussion, but the context of Malcom's signing is incredibly hard to understand. It was a signing that wasn't needed and could have cost the club a lot of legal problems, highlighting how the Bartomeu era was a constant series of mistakes.