Before the opening of the January transfer window, it was clear just how important it would be for Barcelona.
There is no room for error on the pitch because the club simply have to be in the Champions League places at the end of the season. Anything less than that will be seen as a disaster.
To that end, there needed to be some way that the club could make new signings in order to revitalise a squad that has really gone through the mill over the last 12-18 months.
With a reported debt of over a billion euros, any transfers at all were going to be hard to come by, so the fact that business has been carried out, and the team has been improved, has to be seen as a positive.