What is the point of a loan with a mandatory purchase option? Basically we are just delaying getting paid the 2.5 million (according to Romano) fee. And hopefully we don't have to pay part of his salary on loan.
3m wouldn't exactly save us.
If reports are true it's the best deal we could get if we still want to keep a longterm control over the player and at the same time send him to a club where he'll have a fair chance to get minutes. Alternatively could have sold him to a lower table EPL team for a bit more money but then who knows what would happen with him if (or better said when) he wouldn't make a breakthrough there.
It's probably also a sign Barca thinks he's at least two years away from having a potential role in the first team here which is probably a fair assessment given we've just signed Inigo and have other younger CBs.
Who in their right mind buys a player for 3m and then lets the selling party buy him back for 7m if he is any good? On top of that, gives away half of any future sale to another club.
Have Betis turned in to the Barca of Bartomeu? Not buying this at all.
Betis is a broken club (thanks to Tebas). They can have a player for almost free for two years (this season on loan and then next season as it's unlikely they would decide to sell straight after buying him) and if he develops well they can earn some money on him. This way they would also have bigger incentives to play him than if he'd be just a loanee knowing he'd return to Barca regardless of how he'd do.
From Barca's perspective he's given a 2-3 year development window so a bit more stability than if he'd return after a loan and we'd have to look for a new club next year.
If ideally in 2-3 years he turns out great we just get him back. If he's shit we at least didn't give him away for nothing like we're doing with so many players. If he's somewhere in the middle (which he'll probably be) so a good player but not quite up to Barca's standards then we can hope Betis will sell for 15-20m and we get half of that (Betis would also push to get as high fee as possible from interested clubs knowing they'd have to give us 50%). Which would still be more than what we'd be able to sell him for because let's be real, Barca is of the worst teams in the world when it comes to selling players.
Zero complaints from me if a reported deal is true. Would have bigger problems if no buy-back option is included but if we'd really keep 50% of future sale would also enable us to bring him back relatively cheaply in future if we decide to do so. But would need to (re)negotiate and probably wouldn't be as cheap as 7m.
Let's see what official loan/transfer will look like though as there are still some conflicting reports.