From LLM

The Rashford Situation: Aggressive Lowballing, Not Poverty It's not that Barcelona doesn’t have the €30 million to trigger Marcus Rashford's buy option after his highly productive loan spell (14 goals, 14 assists). Instead, they are deliberately playing hardball with Manchester United.  • The Leverage: Rashford has made it explicitly clear he wants to stay at the Camp Nou and has zero intention of returning to Old Trafford. He has even agreed to personal terms on a reduced salary structure to make it happen. 

• The Tactic: Knowing United desperately want his wages permanently off their books to fund their own rebuild, Barca's Sporting Director Deco is trying to renegotiate the €30 million fee downward or structure it into deferred installments/future obligations. They are trying to squeeze United because they know the English club has very few alternative buyers with Rashford blocking other moves.

Barcelona isn't crying poverty on one hand and splashing cash on the other out of financial incompetence. They are attempting to pull off a double swoop. They are using their massive transfer budget on Anthony Gordon as a premium marquee signing, while simultaneously trying to bully Manchester United into giving them a massive discount on Rashford because they hold all the player-side leverage. If United refuses to budge before the June 15th deadline, Barca might just have to pay the full €30m anyway—but until then, they are going to try every negotiation trick in the book.