Barcelona's clear-out operation is at cruising speed

From the moment the 2020/21 club season ended, the Barcelona hierarchy got to work on a major clear-out operation.

The objective of such an operation is to reduce the club's salary cap and finance a new contract for Lionel Messi.

However, the task of selling players is not straightforward for Barcelona, given that certain players earning enormous wages are unwilling to move to other clubs where they will earn less.

Therefore, after identifying the players to be moved on, the club have set their operation in motion. On Tuesday, Junior Firpo's move to Leeds United for 15 million euros was confirmed.

This was followed up on Wednesday, as Almeria exercised an option to buy Sergio Akieme for 3.5m euros.

Jean-Clair Tobido's has signed for Nice for 8.5m euros, with Konrad de la Fuente set to move to Marseille for 3m euros.

More players will be sold

However, Barcelona's efforts to sell players show no signs of slowing down. Miralem Pjanic looks set to return to Juventus on loan.

As for the cases of players such as Neto, Martin Braithwaite and even Philippe Coutinho, their futures look set to be resolved shortly.