Barcelona are staring at a genuine crisis before the new season even begins. The centre-forward position has become a headache for Hansi Flick, with the Julian Alvarez deal failing to materialise and Ferran Torres's future hanging in the balance.
According to a report in the Spanish newspaper "Marca", Barcelona are still hunting for a striker to replace the departed Robert Lewandowski. Alvarez sits top of the shortlist, but Atletico Madrid show no willingness to let their Argentine forward leave.
Club chiefs are working on more than one option, yet they have failed to seal an alternative so far. That threatens to leave the number nine role without clear reinforcement as the new campaign closes in.
Muddying the picture further is the uncertainty around Torres, who has drawn interest from Paris Saint-Germain. The French club have yet to table an official offer, though one is expected in the coming days.
His exit, should it happen, would land as a heavy blow to Flick. Torres stepped up as the natural replacement for Lewandowski last season, featuring 38 times as the central striker.
Even so, Flick has options inside the squad. Dani Olmo and Lamine Yamal stand out, alongside new arrivals Anthony Gordon and Karim Adeyemi. All of them have played through the middle at some point in their careers.
Young Egyptian striker Hamza Abdel Karim also emerges as a possible answer from the youth ranks. He started both friendlies against Europa and Birmingham, and grabbed the team's two goals against Birmingham.
Leaning on Hamza or any of the internal solutions still looks short of enough to end the crisis. Barcelona need a striker who can carry the weight of competing at the highest level, particularly with the club chasing every trophy on offer.
So Barcelona find themselves in a race against time to settle the striker question with the season looming. The futures of Julian Alvarez and Ferran Torres remain wide open, leaving the number nine spot as one of the biggest challenges Flick faces heading into the new campaign.