There really couldn’t be a bigger contrast on and off the pitch for Barcelona. On the pitch Barca have carried on where they left off last season. The football they are capable of producing is simply above any other club in the world. But off the pitch it’s a different story. Over the past two summers Barcelona have been involved in some very long and protracted transfer dealings that have not worked out well for the club. From the players that were signed and then resold at a loss a year later (Ibrahimovic , Chyhrynsky) to the never ending saga of Cesc Fabregas that, for now at least, has ended in defeat for the Spanish giants.

The reign of Joan Laporta ended over the summer handing over the presidency to Sandro Rosell. And yet despite all the good Laporta did while in charge at the club (Including 4 La Liga titles and 2 Champions Leagues) there will forever be a mark against his name for the way the transfer dealings were handled towards the end of his spell in charge, not to mention the financial mess that Laporta was more than happy to leave Rosell to clean up.

The last two summer transfer windows have been about two big name transfer targets for Barcelona, one they got and one that got away. And yet it was the one they got that gave them the biggest problem. Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s arrival at the Nou Camp last year was heralded as the big signing that they needed if they were to hold off the charge of the big spending Real Madrid and deliver them the Champions League for a second consecutive year, a feat never achieved since the birth of the Champions League back in 1992.

And yet despite a bright start from the Swedish giant, his career in Spain soon suffered due to a lack of goals and a lack of harmony within the camp. For when you’re at Barcelona, no matter who you are, you shall always be playing second fiddle to Lionel Messi. He is the main man at Barcelona and the team is built around him. Unfortunately for Zlatan he could not accept this. He saw that he was on equal terms with little Argentinian and the fact that Guardiola did not was always going to spell trouble for him. Soon his form slumped as he felt less loved at the club and despite Barcelona going on to win La Liga, their ultimate goal of becoming back to back European
Champions was ended by Inter Milan and Jose Mourinho.

The fate of Ibrahimovic can be summed up by Guardiola’s tactical switch in the second leg of that tie. While searching for a goal deep into the second half, Ibra was taken off so they could put Pique, a centre half, up front instead. With hindsight it is easy to see that this match spelt the end of Ibrahimovic’s Barcelona career. He would go on to be loaned out to Milan a few months later in order to cut costs and reduce the damage done by such an expensive transfer for a player on such an expensive wage. The speed at which the transfer picked up pace showed just how badly Barcelona wanted him away and off their pay roll.

This summer however has been an all together different affair. Despite signing two world class players in the shape of David Villa and Javier Mascherano, their number one transfer target eluded them. Cesc Fabregas, the former Barcelona youth player and current captain of Arsenal was seen as the transfer that just had to happen. Cesc is a Barcelona boy and as far as Laporta was concerned that meant they could behave in any fashion they saw fit in order to get him back.

Now as an outsider looking in to the world of Spanish football I had always considered Barcelona a far classier club than Real Madrid when it came to how they handled their business. I had always been put off by how Real Madrid carried out “shopping list” style football. They would simply name a player, demand that he came to their club and would unsettle the player until his club was forced to move. However after this summer’s transfer dealings I can’t help but feel that the roles have reversed somewhat. Be it from Laporta or the clubs players themselves, the constant pressure and media circus that followed the proposed deal around has meant constant scrutiny has been on Fabregas and Arsenal all summer long. And yet despite the wishes of Barcelona and from Cesc himself, the transfer did not go ahead.

When Rosell took over he tried to publicly build bridges with Arsenal insisting that there was no pressure to sell, while privately asking the player to push Arsenal to let them sell him. However Fabregas was not keen to do so, his relationship with Arsene Wenger and his respect and love for Arsenal meant that despite his wish to leave he would not actively push for an exit and would instead accept their position not to sell him. Such loyalty may have surprised Barcelona, but it shouldn’t have. Fabregas is not only a top footballer but a loyal and decent guy too. Perhaps if they were dealing with another high profile player the outcome would have been different.

But ultimately we know where his future lies and it’s not in London, eventually we shall see Fabregas back in a Barcelona kit. But while Barcelona wait for the return of the prodigal son they can look forward to another season where they will entertain and enthral us all with the beautiful nature of their football. I just hope that for the good of the club and for football as a whole we can step away from the darker side of Barcelona that has emerged of late. For a club that has done so much good all over the world though all their various schemes and projects it would be a shame if financial miss management and drawn out transfer sagas were to overshadow all of that. Not to mention cloud the clubs glorious achievement on the pitch where they have ruled so supremely over the last few years.