Gabriel Jesus is Barcelona’s new signing and I’m genuinely shocked, because this came completely out of nowhere. I’m still trying to figure out the exact reasons behind this signing, apart from the obvious ones: Gabriel is a mobile striker, drops deep, combines with teammates, presses and creates space with his movement. But there are way more cons than pros.
Was this a way of annoying Atlético? A few days ago, it came out that Atlético could sign Gabriel Jesus and, because of that, Barcelona, still annoyed about the whole Julián Álvarez situation and the fact that there was no negotiation with Barcelona, went and signed Jesus?
Jesus is 29, he should be in his prime, but he’s very, very far from it. At Arsenal, he was the third-choice striker and is constantly dealing with injuries. He’s not a goalscorer: he scored just 7 goals across the last two Premier League seasons combined. And this is who Barcelona, a club that needs to replace the goals of Lewandowski and Ferran Torres, signed?
I don’t know if I consider this a “great market opportunity”. It was €10 million, okay, that seems very cheap in a market where, if you can run in a straight line, you already cost €50 million, but I don’t know. I think that if Barcelona wanted Julián and couldn’t get him, they didn’t need to drop the level this much.
If they had €120 million available, why not go after a striker around the €60 million mark? Did it have to be Gabriel Jesus? In 2026? Is this what is going to add goals, considering the club has just lost its two highest scorers from last season?
I don’t know, but my initial feeling about this transfer isn’t convincing me.
Conclusion
The reaction is: “what the fuck?”. Is this the player Barcelona signed to replace the goals of Lewandowski and Ferran? Weird. Was this an act of revenge against Atlético? If so, childish. This is going to be interesting.