‘A real mess’: Leeds journalist shares ‘almost unbelievable’ detail about Raphinha joining Barca

Follow us on Google Discover

Speaking on his podcast, Phil Hay has shared an interesting detail about Raphinha’s move to Barcelona this summer.

The Brazilian left Leeds United last week to fulfil his dream of playing for La Blaugrana, but despite this deal being in the pipeline for months, it went down to the wire.

In fact, according to Hay, at the point Barcelona were preparing their announcement for Raphinha, negotiations were still ongoing between Leeds and the La Liga outfit.

The journalist states that Barca jumped the gun a bit with their announcement, stating that the deal was only officially agreed just moments before the unveiling video was posted on Twitter.

What’s been said?

Hay spoke about Raphinha’s move.

“We should touch on that a little bit actually. Even on Friday when it was announced on their website that it would be a private signing at 12:30, a public signing at 1:00 and keepy-upys on the pitch and then a press conference at this time. Even then the contract was going back and forth between Leeds and Barcelona. Leeds were telling them that there were aspects of this that they hadn’t agreed, aspects that they have to agree if they’re going to do this,” Hay said.

“Basically as that video was put on Barcelona’s Twitter feed that was the point at which it finally came back from Barcelona and they agreed to all of this stuff. It’s easy to look at a transfer and think they just paid the money and it got done, but it was a real mess and so complex that it was almost unbelievable.”

Shambles

Barcelona are being ran in a way that can only be described as shambolic at the moment.

Eye-watering debts, selling off vital assets and signing huge names on terms that, on the surface, seem unagreeable.

The fact that Barca jumped the gun with this Raphinha signing isn’t a surprise at all. The club is being run so poorly that these types of things aren’t shocking at all.

It was very cheeky of Barca to all-but announce this signing while Raphinha was still technically a Leeds player, but the deal did get over the line in the end.