Barcelona still aren’t over losing Marc Guiu to Chelsea in July 2024.
Thursday’s edition of Sport covers the striker’s move to Stamford Bridge and the impact it has had on Barcelona.
The striker is a product of Barcelona’s academy, considered one of La Masia’s brightest prospects. The expectation was for him to become a first team regular at the Camp Nou.
That didn’t happen because Chelsea snatched him and prior to joining them, he played seven matches for Barcelona’s first team. He’s yet to featured regularly for the Blues, and Sport Witness earlier covered Catalan claims criticising his decision to join Chelsea.
Chelsea surprised Barcelona
Sport claim the 20-year-old’s agent, ‘suddenly, unexpectedly and without warning’, had informed Barca of his transfer to join Chelsea.
The La Liga winners couldn’t block the move because the Club World Cup winners had triggered his €6m clause. For Hansi Flick’s side, it was a ‘major blow. Especially given how unexpected the news was.’
Barcelona had a long-term plan for the Spain U21 international but suffered a blow when Chelsea triggered his affordable clause. The newspaper state: ‘Guiu’s painful departure marked a turning point for the Barca offices’.
Barcelona action after Guiu’s move to Chelsea
The Blaugrana decided to act after seeing Guiu leave for the Premier League side.
To avoid being helpless in future, the Spanish giants ‘implemented a new system of clauses’ to stop unexpected departures of La Masia rising stars.
Sport state: ‘This new measure, championed by Alexanco, Deco, and others, has been maintained with all contract extensions signed since June/July 2024. Thus, all players born in 2008 who had not yet renewed their contracts for the youth academy at that time signed with these new clauses in their agreements.’
According to this system, all youth players will start with a €6m base clause and it’ll rise further when certain set objectives are met.
Dro Fernández didn’t have this clause and therefore, Barca couldn’t stop his move to Paris Saint-Germain in January.
To sum it up, Barcelona have taken measures to avoid losing young talents after Chelsea snatched Guiu.