On 4 July, Barcelona put two senior defenders on the transfer list, each at 150M SVC. One of them was gone within eight days. The other is still waiting.

The one who sold was Jules Koundé. Barcelona cut his price to 140M on 7 July, and Bayern bid that amount 13 minutes later. The one still waiting is Andreas Bødtker Christensen, a 91-rated Danish centre-back. He has now been on the market for 99 days without one bid.

The listing

• Rating: 91 (tackling 91, passing 90), age 30. He can play CB, LB and CM.
• Game value: 15.26M SVC
• Asking price: 110M SVC, which is 7.21 times his value
• Highest bid the game allows: 183.1M SVC
• Bids: none, so the auction clock has not started

The on-chain record shows two listings, both by Barcelona:

1. 4 July — listed at 150M. No bids.
2. 18 August — relisted at 110M, a 40M cut. Still no bids 54 days later.

The archive has no bid on Christensen in either auction.

Why nobody has bid

His fitness hasn't helped. Since the price cut he has been injured twice, from 24 August to 11 September and from 21 September to 8 October. That is more than half of the 110M listing spent unavailable. He is back now, but his fitness is 81.

He also isn't a regular starter. Christensen has played 463 league minutes this season, which is 43% of the time available. He has eight appearances, and four of them came off the bench. Barcelona's squad has five other players rated 91 or higher who can play centre-back. One of them is Moussa Niakhaté (94), who arrived from Lisboa for 75.56M a few hours after Christensen was first listed.

Barcelona usually get their price

Barcelona have sold well this year. Five sales since July have brought in 621.58M SVC:

• Player to Bayern — 200M
• Jules Koundé to Bayern — 140M
• Frenkie de Jong to Lyon — 140M
• Player to Gubbio — 89M
• Gabriel Batista to Leeds — 52.58M

The de Jong sale followed the same pattern as Koundé's. He was listed at 150M in July, then relisted at 120M on 24 September. Lyon bid within a minute and ended up paying 140M.

The 110M price makes sense next to Koundé. He is now rated 90 and valued at 15.7M, almost the same as Christensen. The difference is that Koundé was 27 and fit when he sold. Christensen is 30, has only just come back from two injuries and has been a part-time player this season.

Barcelona don't need the money. They are top of ESP Division 1 with a 167.38M SVC balance under manager Ralek17, and they have spent 786.33M this window, including 398.56M on Harry Kane.

The rest of the top market

Few top players on the market are getting bids. Eleven players rated 89 or above are listed right now, and only one of them has a bid: Burnley's 79M offer for Linz Black's Modou Kéba Cissé. In #transfers, one seller is offering a reward just to get someone to make the first bid:

I'm paying 125 svc to whoever makes the 1st bid on one of the following players

Sarah's verdict: Barcelona are pricing Christensen the way they priced Koundé, but buyers don't see the two players the same way. To sell him, they will probably need either a second cut or a club that urgently needs a defender. Until then, he goes back into the squad as a backup.