Barca fans have been really unhappy with the board for a long time. Their transfer business has been pretty bad for a while and some think that Bartomeu is also having other interests in mind. At the very least, the Paulinho deal looks pretty shady.
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There has been a lot of confusion regarding Barça’s interest in Guangzhou’s Paulinho. How is a Premier League flop moving to Barcelona for an eye-watering €40 million? Has Barcelona lost its minds? Are we really going from Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta to Paulinho?
There has been online speculation that there is more to Paulinho’s transfer than just sporting reasons. Josep Maria Bartomeu Floreta is a partner and CEO at ADELTE Group which is into designing, manufacturing, supplying and maintaining airports, seaports and road transport operations.
Apparently, ADELTE Group is expanding into China and bidding on projects like the Ocean Flower Island being built by the Evergrande group which also happens to be the parent organisation of—you guessed it—Guangzhou. There are rumours that Florentino Perez’s ACS Group was also bidding for the project, but with the Paulinho transfer concluded, could be handed over to ADELTE Group and/or associates.
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https://www.barcablaugranes.com/2017...news-guangzhou
by the way, Messi also still hasn't signed the new contract that has been on the table for months now. The current one ends in June ...