Arda Turan Becomes a Controversial Pawn in Barcelona's Murky Presidential Race

Arda Turan could yet end up being a Barcelona player for exactly two weeks. That might seem unlikely—almost unprecedented, even—but it remains very much a possibility.

In announcing the €34 million (£29 million) signing of the former Atletico Madrid midfielder on Monday, Barcelona’s managing committee felt compelled to stress that the winner of the presidential elections on July 18 will have the opportunity to sell Turan straight back to Atletico for €30.6 million (the fixed initial fee “less 10 percent option costs”), should the new man decide he does not want the 28-year-old.

“I welcome the decision of the management,” outgoing (and possibly incoming) president Josep Maria Bartomeu told reporters after the deal was announced, as noted by Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). “He will contribute greatly to the team.”

Not everyone is so enthusiastic. With Bartomeu, who oversaw Barca’s treble-winning run to the end of last season, standing in the forthcoming election, he had been required to resign from his post last month in order to campaign on a level playing field to the other hopefuls.

That left the “managing committee” in charge of day-to-day operations at the Camp Nou, with their mandate, officially speaking, “limited to the necessary and vital activities that allow the club to function normally and protect its interests.”

After the Turan announcement was made, the immediate reaction from some was that such transfers, particularly for such a large fee, did not fall within that specified remit. While most presidential campaigns run on pledges to sign Player X or Player Y, signing individuals during the election process throws such promises into disarray.

It does not help that Bartomeu had previously pledged to sign Turan—the only one of the five candidates to explicitly do so—with the announcement allowing others the chance to complain that he was unfairly influencing the election process.

Manu Fernandez/Associated Press

“Bartomeu could have made the signing of Arda before resigning … this tries to favour his candidacy,” former president Joan Laporta, himself standing for re-election, said at a debate (which Bartomeu did not attend) on Monday, according to Jordi Gil of Sport (in Spanish). “There is a lack of transparency, as there was with the Neymar signing.”

The managing committee, however, insisted that Turan had been specifically requested by treble-winning manager Luis Enrique, with committee president Ramon Adell hinting in a club statement that the 28-year-old might have gone elsewhere if the club had not acted when it did.

“The decision could not be put off any longer,” Adell said (since Turan had been strongly linked with Chelsea and Manchester United in the press, as noted in the London Evening Standard earlier this week). “The incoming president still has the possibility of reversing the operation … it protects the interests of the club.”

Not everyone was convinced. “The club is strong enough club to get the player to wait for the new president,” Laporta (who has pledged to sign Paul Pogba instead) added, “and relations with Atletico are good enough to get them."

Returning Turan to the Vicente Calderon is certainly a possibility (albeit only if Bartomeu does not win) but is perhaps unlikely, regardless of who is successful.

Assuming Luis Enrique really did request the dynamic midfielder—he is yet to say publicly either way, but his cold relationship with Bartomeu’s administration toward the end of last season hardly suggests he would be a pawn in whatever political game Bartomeu’s team might want to play—then the incoming president, whoever he might be, is unlikely to turn away a new signing so dramatically.

Only Laporta perhaps has the credibility to pull off such a move (acquired through his achievements, and signings, in his previous tenure), yet even he would have to have an even bigger name up his sleeve—almost certainly Pogba, who will surely be difficult to get—before he pushed that button.

Alex Caparros/Getty Images

Bartomeu may have been personally satisfied to see the deal done—the managing committee said negotiations had been going on for “months,” indicating Bartomeu had been involved at the beginning—but he insisted the deal was in the best interests of the club, not any individual.

"They have made the right decision, the right one for the club,” Bartomeu added. “This move did not favour me, it favours Barca because he is a very good player of proven quality.” 

It is hard to disagree. Another candidate, Agusti Benedito, may have complained at Monday’s debate, again via the aforementioned Sport article, that there are “other alternative players to Turan” out there, but few (if any) match the ex-Galatasaray player’s combination of qualities and familiarity with the pressures of Spanish football.

In the short term, it is easy to see Luis Enrique’s attraction. While he is predominantly a right-winger—an area of the pitch that Barcelona already have well-covered by a certain Lionel Messi—Turan can also play from the left and even in a deeper role in midfield. That means he will give Barca a huge amount of flexibility next season, able to deputise (to one extent or another) for all three of the front-line attackers and perhaps the most attacking of the side’s central midfielders (Andres Iniesta) as well.

His aggressive, high-intensity style will fit in well with the transition-based attacking strategy that Luis Enrique has come to favour, making him a valuable component to Los Cules’ different style of play in the post-Xavi era.

His quality down the right—he scored 22 goals and provided 32 assists predominantly from that spot during his time at Atleti—also gives Luis Enrique the opportunity to move Messi elsewhere (both before matches and during them), to further explore the Argentine’s ability to influence games by dropping deeper to receive the ball or even pushing more centrally.

Turan might not actually be a name in Barcelona’s first-choice XI for a one-off game at any point next season, but his versatility and particular qualities should mean he plays a great number of games once he is available, albeit in a number of different positions. The transfer fee might seem high for a player who is ultimately going to be a high-use squad option, but that is just the heightened world the top clubs now live in.

That being said, the deal is not without some evidence of panic on the part of those who have signed it. Turan has received a five-year deal, meaning he will be under contract at the Camp Nou until he is 33—an age where most attacking players of his ilk have long since peaked (although advances in training, treatment and nutrition are slowly changing that).

We already know he will not play for a tenth of that contract due to Barcelona’s ban on registering players that is not lifted until the start of 2016, while if we assume his peak will pass before his 33rd birthday then his absence for such a period will be even more significant.

For a significant chunk of his prime, Barcelona are effectively paying Turan not to play.

Then again, that is obviously a dynamic the player is comfortable with, perhaps figuring this season he will instead arrive for the second half of the campaign—when all the major trophies are decided—fit and firing and ready to make the maximum impact.

He will also have Aleix Vidal, previously signed from Sevilla, for company during the six months both men are unable to play, which may perhaps make it slightly more palatable (a problem shared is a problem halved, after all).

That is assuming he remains at Barcelona at all, of course. He will surely now watch the unfolding presidential elections with interest, eager to see how much of a point of debate he becomes over the next two weeks.

Alex Caparros/Getty Images

Turan’s signing is clearly a positive for Bartomeu, whatever the incumbent might say, and as such the deal is one that will undoubtedly be attacked with venom by all his rivals. If Laporta or another challenger can turn the signing into a scandal, perhaps their only hope of election success (coupled with the ongoing Neymar controversies, they could present Bartomeu as an unreliable leader), they may yet eat into Bartomeu’s presumed lead.

Of course, doing that might eventually make Turan’s signing a toxic one—almost compelling whoever wins the presidency (if it is not Bartomeu) to exercise the return clause or risk starting their term as a hypocrite.

That would undoubtedly be bad for Barcelona’s squad, albeit not the end of the world. Fortunately for Luis Enrique, and the player himself, such an outcome seems unlikely. Then again, observers thought it was highly unlikely that Barcelona would sign anyone during the election process.

Then again, FIFA thought it was impossible Barcelona would sign anyone until the transfer window opened in January 2016 (if this whole process has taught us anything, it is that FIFA's laws when it comes to such transfer bans need to be written more likely).

Unlikely as it may be, Turan might be forgiven for not relaxing until that July 20 deadline actually passes. For the next two weeks, he will become the pawn in someone else's game. Only after that will we know if he then becomes part of Luis Enrique's team.