A none Liverpool story today. I noticed on Sky Sports that La Liga have granted permission to Barcelona to sign an emergency replacement striker outside the transfer window. How long has that rule been in place?
Barcelona To Sign An Emergency Replacement
As striker Ousmane Dembele requires surgery and is sidelined for 6 months, Barcelona approached the Spanish Football Federation and La Liga to request that they may sign an emergency replacement.
Dembele’s absence is on top of an injury to Luis Suarez. Although today it has been reported that Suarez is walking normally and is expected to be available before the end of the season.
An article I read said that Barcelona’s forward line has been ‘decimated.’ Am I missing something? They have two forwards out and their forward line is decimated? Or is it because of the length of Dembele’s injury? If the latter then they may as well do away with the transfer window really wouldn’t they?
I understand that any emergency replacement signing only applies to domestic games and they will still be ‘decimated’ when they play Napoli in the Champions League. But how can losing two players be classed as being decimated. Or how can it enable you to sign an emergency replacement for any competition whatsoever outside of the transfer window if you lose one player for 6 months?
How many teams would love to have a ‘decimated’ forward line consisting of Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann? But no apparently that’s not enough. There are no other players in the squad, or youngsters coming through, that can prop up the ‘decimated’ forward line. Or step in as a replacement for Dembele.
Sign An Emergency Replacement-How Does It Work?
Apparently now that the Spanish Football Federation and La Liga have granted permission to Barcelona to sign an emergency replacement, they have set their sights on Willian Jose from Real Sociedad. With figures of 53 goals in 132 games, it looks like he’s no dud.
But I still can’t get my head around how it all works. Hasn’t Dembele been injured since November? And between him being injured and today hasn’t there been a transfer window?
You know the sort of thing, your squad needs stocking up as you may have some players missing, so you abide by the same rules as everyone else and sign players in the allotted time scale allowed. In other words the transfer window.
Now it’s been confirmed that Dembele’s 3 month old injury will keep him out longer, Barcelona can sign an emergency replacement. In a way isn’t that tantamount to saying the transfer window doesn’t apply to them?
So if they sign Willian Jose or somebody else for that matter, does that mean they can’t play him when Suarez returns from fitness?
And what if some other club would have liked to have signed Jose just before the transfer window closed but they ran out of time? Barcelona have been granted a free hit in their very own, ‘one-club’ transfer window.
Sign An Emergency Replacement – El Clasico
The next El Clasico is on 1st March. Not sure if Suarez is likely to be fit by then. Whether he is fit or not, picture the scenario. The game is entering a crucial stage and unfortunately for Real Madrid, both Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale are injured during the game. Both injuries are likely to keep them out for the rest of the season and beyond.
And Real Madrid don’t have any other striker on the bench. Surely their forward line is ‘decimated’ then isn’t it?
If so, does that mean the game should be abandoned and only replayed when Real Madrid make their own presentation to the Spanish football authorities to sign an emergency replacement?
As it won’t be abandoned, just imagine if Willian Jose scored the winner as well which set Barcelona on their way to another La Liga title.
What about from Real Sociedad’s position? If they lose their star striker to Barcelona and they can’t replace him as it is outside the transfer window, what happens if one of their other strikers is injured long term in the next game?
Wouldn’t they be as ‘decimated’ as Barcelona? If so, they should be allowed to sign an emergency replacement – shouldn’t they? And the team they sign a striker from….and the same happens to them. What if the same happens to the next team down the chain? And so on. Rinse and repeat.
Sign An Emergency Replacement – A Dangerous Precedent?
Haven’t the Spanish football authorities just set a dangerous new precedent? Is it new? Has this rule always been there in Spanish football? If so, what constitutes decimation? Two injuries for players in the same position? Three? Four?
Or is it based on the length of the injury? Again, if so, doesn’t that open a real can of worms and again effectively sidestep the transfer window.
Or maybe the rule, as flakey as it is, has been there for a while and each club’s circumstances are viewed on their own merits. In that case, you might be well and truly knackered Real Sociedad and all other clubs other than the top two.
On A Wider Scale
I am aware that this particular situation only applies to domestic games. So, Barcelona may still have problems in the Champions League. Big problems indeed. I mean how will they manage with those two novices, Messi and Griezmann?
What a clever way to work around the transfer window rules and make a completely different set of rules for yourselves only. If that isn’t the intention then someone in Barcelona’s transfer committee (if they have one) needs to give his head a good wobble as their planning for the last window was way out.
From our point of view it makes our 4-0 thumping of Barcelona last May even more remarkable doesn’t it. As we were without both Bobby Firmino and Mo Salah for the 2nd leg, two of the best strikers in the world, we were well decimated weren’t we? You would think so considering Barca’s ‘predicament.’
Gladly nobody told Divock Origi that he was a ‘decimated emergency replacement.’
Just imagine how much of a thumping we might well have given them without such decimation!!!
Fields Of Anfield Road
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