5 Ways Barcelona can improve next season

#3 Sell fringe players

The fringe players have only increased the club's wage bill and it would be very advisable to sell them.

La Liga champions Barcelona became the first football team to spend over half a billion euros in wages after their staff costs shot up by 42 percent over the past year, according to a study by KPMG. KPMG’s Football Benchmark study analyzed the squads and finances of the respective champions of Europe’s top eight leagues in 2018.

The Catalans, who signed Brazil playmaker Philippe Coutinho from Liverpool in January 2018 for a club record €160 million, have staff costs of €562 million a year. Along with the arrival of France forward, Ousmane Dembele in August 2017 and the renewal of several players’ contracts, including talisman Lionel Messi and Jordi Alba, their expenditure in this field has increased hugely.

One way to reduce the wage bill is to sell the fringe players. Jeison Murillo and Kevin-Prince Boateng are certainly going to leave the club. Then there are Thomas Vermaelen and Rafinha who are both injury-prone and can't get enough playing time at Barca. Jasper Cillessen is almost certain to leave. The Dutch keeper wants to become a starter elsewhere and the club respects his position. Denis Suarez will be returning from Arsenal only to pick up the stuff he left at Barcelona and head out. The midfielder has almost no chances to continue playing for Barcelona.

If Barcelona managed to sell all of these players, they would certainly reduce their wage bill by a good margin. This would allow the club to negotiate the renewals of players like Rakitic and allow them to splash some extra clash in the Europen market this summer.