It's time for Barça to dream big once again, but the reality of the market might not make it easy. After the party that was last summer's signings, replicating that feat now seems impossible due to the salary cap issues that LaLiga is imposing on the club.
Despite this, the sports area remains ambitious and focused on bringing in a top-level international player to accompany Lewandowski and the youngsters.
Enter Bernardo Silva, the great summer dream for Barça. His game is versatile enough to adapt to any system and his arrival would bring much-needed poise, arrival, and solvency to take the team to the next level in European football.
But with limited room for maneuver in the transfer market, this dream might remain just that – a dream.
Bernardo Silva wants to leave City, and the English club will respect his decision from June. He has repeatedly been offered to wear the Blaugrana colors.
Bernardo Silva wants to leave City, and the English club will respect his decision from June. He has repeatedly been offered to wear the Blaugrana colors.
However, the financial constraints facing Barça make this a difficult proposition. Laporta and his board of directors have been known to find implausible solutions to strengthen the team, but with almost zero room for maneuver.
Any potential signing would require City and the player to plan many changes and a reshuffling of City's current squad - who are highly dependent on Silva. Their current campaign is a mixed bag and are trying to figure out a way to adapt to Erling Haaland.
Despite the difficulty of the situation, Barça knows the importance of bringing in a player like Bernardo Silva, who can make a difference in their game. It might mean playing almost everything on a single card, but the final decision will be known in a few months.
One thing is for sure – the team needs a player like Bernardo Silva if they want to compete at the highest level of European football.
Talking about Bernardo Silva's game being versatile enough to adapt to any system, the Portuguese international offers exactly that from a tactical perspective - a variety of roles all over the field, and with great expertise.
Let's first examine the many hats he's worn in Guardiola's system: the first one as a false winger. Silva has shown his versatility by starting as a right winger, and then seamlessly switching to the left during a game demonstrating his ability to adapt to various positions.
Manchester City and Barcelona play on a similar tactical blueprint and utilizing a false nine is a key part of the game, something Luis Enrique's Spain also did during the World Cup with Marco Asensio.
Bernardo Silva has taken on this role at City various times in City's front five in possession with Silva dropping back slightly behind the line into pockets of space to assist in central progression. The two midfielders and wingers stay forward.
Sometimes, Silva drops all the way into midfield from the false nine position, leaving a front four to push forward as the two actual midfielders take up forward positions, similar to what Leo Messi does. This free up the other midfielder and in Barca's case that would be Pedri.
In the attacking phase, Silva can also stay slightly behind the front line like a traditional false nine, dragging opposition centre-backs out of position and creating space behind the defence. The decoy move would greatly help Robert Lewandowski.
Bernardo Silva's main role is that of an attacking midfielder where he's usually deployed behind the striker. That could be in a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3. The 4-2-3-1 would be similar to Xavi's 3-4-3 on the field.
In that case he can stay on the right of the striker in the front line, rarely dropping deep and instead focusing on runs in the box, something Barcelona need.
Silva can also play as a central midfielder to good effect shifting out to wide areas as well to create space during build up progressions. Playing alongside de Jong would also work in Xavi's system without a dedicated single pivot.
However, a sole pivot is one of the positions to be avoided against transition heavy opponents as seen during Man City's 6-3 drubbing of Man United.
What happened was that City went up 4-0 in the first half with Gundogan as the single pivot and then Guardiola made changes in the second half. With Benardo Silva now playing as a single pivot, Man Utd ran over and actually ended up winning the second half 3-2.
Bernardo Silva can also fill in as a pseudo full-back depending on how experimental Xavi wants to get with his normal full back like Kounde. When Cancelo was at City and now Rico Lewis, Guardiola grants them a lot of freedom to play as midfielders.
In that case Bernardo can drop deep and form a back three, something like Sergi Roberto does as well.
What Xavi's Barca are lacking is the key pass. This season, Bernardo has been a bit quiet on that front, not able to push in the top 40 in the Premier League. However, last season he hit 60 key passes - City's second best player behind de Bruyne who registered 87.
A change of scenery could fix all that for Bernardo and greatly help Barcelona in their rebuild.
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