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#4 Summer, 2007
The surprise of the summer was Barcelona's signing of Arsenal and France legend Thierry Henry for a reported fee of €24 million, in spite of the French forward pledging his loyalty to the Gunners.
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Other notable big-money signings were Yaya Toure, Gabriel Milito and Eric Abidal. Milito was a flop, and Toure had a decent career in Spain, but Abidal and Henry established themselves as legends at the club.
In a season where a young Leo Messi was turning heads and capturing the attention of fans and the media, Henry and Ronaldinho turned out to be the perfect mentors for the incredibly talented youngster.
The 1998 French World Cup winner ended the season as joint top-scorer for the club on 19 goals in what was a disappointing season for the club. Barca surprisingly finished 22 points behind champions Real, and were eliminated in the Champions League by Manchester United.
However, it proved to be a season of transition for the Catalans as manager Frank Rijkaard was succeeded by Pep Guardiola who oversaw one of the most successful periods in the club's history.
And the players that Rijkaard brought in that season played a role - Thierry Henry might have been on the decline, but did form a lethal attacking trio with Messi and Samuel Eto'o, who scored 72 goals between them in a very successful 2008/09 season.
Toure made 74 appearances in 3 seasons, and the emergence of Sergio Busquets was partially responsible for him spending time on the sidelines. Barca did, however, make a reasonable profit from his eventual €30 million sale to Manchester City.
Eric Abidal, though, was probably their best signing. The Frenchman became one of their most legendary full-backs of all time in the five seasons he spent there. Unfortunately, his tenure was marred by health issues, when he was diagnosed with a tumour in his liver in 2011.
He recovered subsequently and returned in 2013, and his passion and perseverance saw him go down in history as one of the most iconic defenders to have graced Camp Nou.
