Barça are the only top European club not to sign defenders

The arrival of a central defender at Barcelona is seeming more and more like mission impossible. Meanwhile, all of Europe's biggest sides have spent the past few seasons strengthening their defences - Barça have spent five summer resting on their laurels.

Since the signing of Dmytro Chyrgrynskiy in 2009-10, the Blaugrana have not slurged on another centre-back. During this time, their rivals have been actively signing some of the best defenders on the market.

Real Madrid

The Champions League winners signed Raphael Varane in June 2011 for €10 million. The French defender, 18 at the time, was the choice of Zinedine Zidane and, injuries aside, has looked a very astute signing.

One year prior to that, Mourinho had signed Ricardo Carvalho for €8 million.

Atletico Madrid

Los Rojiblancos' two starting centre-backs were the arrived during the Gregorio Manzano reign. Miranda signed from Sao Paulo for for free in the summer of 2011, while Atleti had paid Villarreal €8 million for Diego Godin one year previously.

Manchester City

This summer the English champions have signed Bacary Sagna after his contract expired at Arsenal. Naturally a full-back, he has previously played in the middle for the Gunners.

One year ago City signed Martin Demichelis (€5 million), two years ago Matija Nastasic (€15 million), three years ago Stefan Savic (€12 million) and four years ago Jerome Boateng (€12.5 million).

Manchester United

United are in a bad place, having missed out on the Champions League, but in the last five seasons thay have signed various central defenders.

In 2011-12 they bought Phil Jones (€19 million) and a year before that they purchased Chris Smalling (€8 million). In addition to those two, it seems they are close to bringing in Mats Hummels for around €20 million.

Arsenal

The Gunners may not have won a league title recently, but it has not been for a lack of ability across their back four.

In 2011-12 they signed Laurent Koscielny from Lorient for €12.5 million and Sebastian Squillaci from Sevilla for €6.5 million. Prior to that they had brought in Per Mertersacker, who has formed a brilliant partnership with Koscielny, for €11 million.

Liverpool

Luis Suarez's former team acquired the services of Mamadou Sakho last summer. Sakho, who has been linked with Barça, signed for €19 million. Sebastian Coates and Danny Wilson had been signed previously by the Anfield club.

Chelsea

The Blues paid €14 million for Saint Etienne's Kurt Zouma in January, a defender who looks to have a really bright future in football.

Also, Gary Cahill (€8 million), David Luiz (€27 million) and Tomas Kalas (€6 million) have also been signed since Barça last indulged themselves with a central defender.

PSG

David Luiz (€49.5 million) swapped Chelsea for Paris Saint-Germain this summer. Marquinhos, another Barça target, cost €31 million last summer from Roma.

Thiago Silva, who rejected Barcelona, arrived in the French capital for €42 million from AC Milan in 2012-13, while Alex, Diego Lugano and Milan Biševac were also signed by the Ligue 1 champions in recent seasons.

Bayern Munich

Jan Kirchhoff, 23, arrived in Munich last summer from Mainz, who didn't recieve a penny for the defender. Two years ago, Bayern paid €5 million for Dante and in 2011-12 they added Jerome Boateng to their squad for €13.5 million.   

Borussia Dortmund

The German club announced a few days ago the signing of Matthias Ginter from Freiburg for €10 million, while last summer Jurgen Klopp added Werder Bremen's Sokratis Papastathopoulos for a figure of €10 million.

Porto

Last season, Porto paid €7 million to Club America for Diego Reyes. In 2011-12 they signed Eliaquim Managala for €6.5 million and in 2010-11 €8 million was spent on Nicolás Otamendi.

Benfica

They have spent €3 million on Cesar, a young defender from Ponte Preta. Last seasont they signed Lisandro Lopez (€4 million) and Stefan Mitrović (€1 million), while they have also recently signed Ezequiel Garay (€5 million) from Real Madrid and Jardel and Fabio Faria.

Juventus

The Old Lady have not signed a central defender this summer, but they have in recent seasons. Angelo Ogbonna cost €13 million from Torino, while Frederik Sørensen, Leonardo Bonucci, Andrea Barzagli have all signed since Barça paid money for Chyrgrynskiy.

Roma

One of the stars of last season for Roma was Mehdi Benatia, who the club signed from Udinese for €13.5 million last summer. 

Other recent central defenders brought to the Italian capital are Tin Jedvaj (€5 million, Dinamo Zagreb), Marquinhos (€5.7 million, Corinthians), Leandro Castan (€5 million, Corinthians) and Nicolas Burdisso (€8 million, Inter Milan).

Napoli

Rafa Benitez has signed Kalidou Koulibaly for €7 million from Genk this summer.

Last year Napoli also added Raul Albiol (€12 million) and Henrique Capriles (€4 million), while in 2012-13 they signed Alessandro Gamberini for €1.75 million.

With bigger and smaller budgets, with more or less success, all of the biggest club sides in Europe have strengthened their backlines during the last five years. All expect Barça.