Barcelona have signed Spanish international striker David Villa from Valencia. The transfer fee paid to Valencia was EUR 40 million (US $48 million). Villa has agreed personal terms with Barcelona on a four-year deal. Pending a medical, it's all going to be made official on Friday.

There are two unintended consequences to the deal. I'm surprised it was done this week.

First, Barcelona and Valencia were able to agree on a price before the World Cup. Villa's performance there is the huge wildcard. If Villa had a dominant tournament, Valencia could have commanded 50|PERCENT| more—from Barcelona, perhaps, or from somebody else for sure. If Villa had a flat tournament, it might have been five million less  The risk to Valencia was Villa getting injured—now, that's Barcelona's risk.

Rather than deal Villa now, Valencia should have gone out and purchased injury insurance on Villa, hoped for the best in South Africa, and sold him as the star of the summer transfer season in August. I don't know what Valencia was thinking.
 
I don't know what Barcelona was thinking either. Villa's arrival is a big, flashing, neon sign that the club is done with Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Barcelona will never get full value for them now. So in addition to David Villa's injury risk (which Barcelona may well cover with insurance), Barcelona now has to write down the value of two other assets they're eager to sell.

Whether it's you house, your car, or your strikers, the value of an asset only really matters when you're trying to sell it. Barcelona is now walking into the summer trading pit with a "sell" sticker stapled to the forehead—and that gets even more pronounced if Barcelona buys Cesc Fabregas from Arsenal in the meantime. Barcelona's going to have a great team next year; financially they'll be dealing from weakness.