madrid barcelonas attempts to establish themselves once again as a force in la liga and the champions league this season have seen the heavilyindebted catalans gamble with their future to enable a striking summer spending spreea year after being forced to let lionel messi go as eyewatering reported debts of 135 billion euros 139 billion crippled the club barcelona have spent 153 million euros on transfer fees alone to strengthen their squad with robert lewandowski the most notable new arrivalthis is a really exciting season nothing would give me more pleasure than to make all the fans happy coach xavi hernandez said before last weekends 60 friendly win over mexican side pumas unamthat means winning trophies that is our main objectiveafter three years of struggles on and off the field the summer has seen hope return to the camp nou with president joan laporta talking of an exciting new era when the club unveiled lewandowski as a barcelona playereuphoria was the headline on the cover of local daily sport the same dayeven partisan madridbased sports daily marca admitted that barca were frightening in the wake of their drubbing of pumas unam last weekend when lewandowski scored his first goal since his arrival from bayern munichyet how barcelona have gone about raising the funds to sign lewandowski as well as centrebacks jules kounde and andreas christensen ac milan midfielder franck kessie and leeds uniteds brazilian winger raphinha has raised eyebrowsfaced with severe limits on spending in order to comply with la ligas financial controls barcelona knew they needed to raise money quickly to be able to invest in any signings and crucially to register any new playersthey quickly set about selling off assets to bring in money by activating a series of what have been called economic leversthe club sold 25 percent of their domestic television rights for the next quarter of a century to us investment firm sixth street for some 400 million eurosbarcelona sold 245 percent of barca studios which manages the clubs digital business and audiovisual productions to socioscom for 100 million euros on august 1 and then another 25 percent to us investment firm gda luma for 100 million euros morein the space of a few weeks 600 million euros had been brought in to fill the coffersthe aim was to clean up the clubs finances make it possible to increase the salary limit set by la liga and allow the new signings to all be registered for the start of the seasonon top of that barca signed the biggest sponsorship deal in their history with spotify bringing in a reported 435 million euros for the music streaming giant to feature on the clubs shirts and to have naming rights to the camp nouand so barcelona look well placed to become serious title contenders again as they prepare to host rayo vallecano this weekendonly time will tell if mortgaging part of the clubs assets in exchange for an immediate influx of cash will bear fruityet barcelona are