Official : Barcelona announce Paulinho signing.

Barcelona have officially announced Paulinho’s signing.

At 12 : 54 Spanish local time, the club official website announced the signing of Paulinho.

Barcelona have set his release clause at €120 million. Paulinho will undergo a medical on Thursday and the the club will unveil him later in the day.

But as the club makes the first move after the departure of Neymar, the question arises, was does Barca have a plausible plan of action ?

Paulinho is not worth €40 million. Despite being in his prime, no club with a definite transfer plan would pay €40 million for his services. He provides depth to the squad, but at the expense of players like Denis Suarez and Carles Alena.

The move for Paulinho clearly shows desperation. Barca had earlier targeted players like Marco Verratti, but failure to land these players led to the signing of Paulinho. The negotiating team at the Camp Nou is inefficient.

The team has prolonged transfer talks with Liverpool and Dortmund for Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele respectively. Also, it failed to successfully negotiate with Paris Saint-Germain for Marco Verratti.

Paulinho was a last-ditch attempt to cover up their flaws. But that too, has turned out to be a poor one. The team failed to bargain for him and paid his full release clause.

The team does not have clarity of thought. Robert Fernandez and Ernesto Valverde need to go back to the drawing board and chalk out a tenable transfer plan.

But there isn’t much time and the management needs to act quickly before the summer turns out to be a disaster.