Munir and Sandro are Barça's best new 'signings'

Munir and Sandro are Barça's best new 'signings'

The transfer window will close on Monday night without Barcelona adding any more new players to their squad. Providing the CAS do not overturn FIFA's transfer ban, Barça are now unable to sign players until January 2016.

Therefore, the current squad must fight in three competitions (Liga, Champions League and COpa) for the next 18 months without any new signings other than those from within the club's youth system.

In this sense, the arrivals of Munir El Haddadi and Sandro Ramirez (both 19) have been the most pleasing surprises of the opening rounds of la Liga. Munir scored in the 3-0 win against Elche, while Sandro hit the winner on Sunday against Villarreal.

Luis Enrique has shown a lot of faith in the pair and they have both responded to their manager's confidence spectacularly.

Among the official signings (Bravo, Ter Stegen, Mathieu, Vermaelen, Rakitic, Luis Suarez and Douglas, plus the return of Rafinha), without doubt it has been Ivan Rakitic who has adapted the best.

The Croatian has been playing on the right of Luis Enrique's central midfield trio, ahead of Xavi, and has looked perfect in the Blaugrana system.

Rafinha, who Luis Enrique knows well from last season at Celta, has also won a starting place in the team, playing both as a forward and as a midfielder in the opening two games. 

And Claudio Bravo, in goal, despite the initial doubts, is doing well as victor Valdes' replacement.

As for Jeremy Mathieu, it seems as if he is Luis Enrique's preferred central defender and that he will partner either Javier Mascherano or Gerard Pique. The Frenchman was poor against Villarreal but has his manager's complete confidence.

Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Thomas Vermaelen, for the moment, are yet to play due to injuries, while Suarez can't debut until the end of October. 

The signing of Douglas last week took the club's summer spending up to €162million, the highest in the history of the club. It's also a signing which raises many questions: Will he replace Dani Alves? Will he hamper Martin Montoya's progression? Is he good enough for Barça despite never having played for Brazil?

Only time, though, will resolve those issues.

The question that all Cules are asking now is whether the signings will be sufficient to compete at the highest level for the next year and a half - or should Barça have gone all out to sign Juan Cuadrado or Marco Reus, two players who they might not be able to sign now until 2016... if it is not too late by that point.