Marcus Rashford has seemingly departed the club, with Anthony Gordon and Karim Adeyemi having been signed to ensure competition for places in attack.
De Jong could be out for months
Julian Alvarez is still being tracked and is the No.1 target to replace Robert Lewandowski, although it's expected that Atletico Madrid will fight tooth and nail to hang onto their star man.
Notwithstanding any transfer comings and goings, the Catalans have to deal with the loss of Frenkie de Jong through injury, after the Dutchman reported back from World Cup duty with a tear of the medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his right knee.
De Jong's 2025/26 campaign became a little stop-start with him missing several games through suspension, personal reasons, illness, muscle injury, a hamstring problem and enforced rest.
Fighting fit by the end of the season, he was selected for the Netherlands and played in all of their games at the World Cup.
Bernal could cement his place at Barca
However, it has since come to light that he'd been playing through the pain barrier during the tournament, and with the knowledge that the midfielder could potentially be out for months rather than weeks, it opens the door for Marc Bernal to cement his position in the first team.
Bernal, just 19 years of age, has been compared, some might say unfairly, to Sergio Busquets, who, for many, was the best defensive midfielder of a generation.
Though he played his part in Barca's Spanish top-flight title success last season, he didn't command a regular start, and with Man City apparently circling as uncertainty over whether Rodri will leave the club or not continues, the school of thought that the Cityzens could swoop and offer him the minutes he deserves is a sensible enough presumption.
There have even been suggestions that Rodri could end up at Camp Nou and not Real Madrid simply because of de Jong's issue, though that would seem counter-productive when Bernal is ready-made to step in.
More goals than de Jong in 1,500 fewer minutes played
Over the course of 2025/26, though he registered 33 appearances in all competitions, the youngster only started in 15 of them, and his 1,313 cumulative minutes played were well down on a number of his colleagues.
Nevertheless, he still managed to score five goals, compared to de Jong's one, despite the Dutchman playing over 1,500 minutes more during the course of the season.
In terms of his passing range, Bernal's 90.56% was one of the highest in the squad, even if he did only attempt 890 passes.
De Jong's 94.19% completion was the best of those players who could be considered as regulars for Hansi Flick, meaning Bernal really needs to up his game in this regard if he wants to be considered the de facto defensive midfielder in the future.
De Jong's chance creation will be missed
Furthermore, though chance creation isn't normally a facet of a defensive midfielder's armoury, the nature of de Jong's all-round game meant that he was able to carve out 51 chances for his teammates last season. Bernal only managed six in comparison.
Another area where the Dutchman excels is with regard to one-on-one duels, though there are reasons to believe that Bernal could usurp de Jong were he given a better crack of the whip.
That's because, although the youngster loses out in terms of percentages (63.9% and 53.22%), Bernal actually contested 171 ground duels, just 34 fewer than de Jong.
45 aerial duels contested and 22 won by Bernal were both better than the Dutchman's 31 and 18, respectively, too.
De Jong may have to fight to regain his place
From a defensive perspective, though the younger of the two didn't attempt as many tackles, his win percentage was markedly better.
23 successful tackles from 34 attempted gave Bernal a healthy 67.65% completion rate, with de Jong's 61 attempted and 28 won meaning a return of just 45.9%.
Hansi Flick has clearly never been frightened to put young players into his starting XI if he believes that they have the capabilities to do so, and there's no valid reason why he won't now give Bernal the game time that he deserves, in order for him to showcase the talent he has.
How long a run in the side he does get will largely be dictated by when de Jong returns to full fitness.
Should that be later rather than sooner, the Dutchman could find that it's a long, hard road ahead to regain his place.