Newsletter

Barça leave the talks with Al-Sadd in the hands of Xavi

BarcelonaThe most important thing happened on Wednesday after the defeat in Vallecas, Barça’s second in a row in the League. Angered by the result, the image of the team and the speech of Ronald Koeman at the press conference, the president of Barça, Joan Laporta, made effective his first dismissal of a coach in the middle of the campaign. He communicated the decision to the Dutchman on the return plane. Later, already in Barcelona, ​​he contacted Xavi Hernández to offer him the bench.

The verbal proposal was accepted first by the egarenc, who does not weigh the doubts that the president has had with him and his professional background in recent months. Aware that he has no better options, and pressured by his leaders, Laporta has ended up rebuilding his bond with the former player to try to make him the mainstay of the sports project. The decision has been made, but has not yet been executed. For now, the only 100% sure is that Sergi Barjuan will act as interim coach until the expected return can be certified.

At this point, there are three open fronts. The most thorny is the termination of Xavi’s contract with Al-Sadd, which expires in 2023 and, unlike previous agreements, does not have an escape clause. Egarenc does not want to leave the project in a bad way and has already communicated his intentions to the sheikhs who have bathed him in gold since 2015. He has always told them that his dream is to be Barça coach and that is why he is confident that now they will not put obstacles in his way to fulfill it. But the Qatari property is also waiting for a gesture from the Barcelona club, which is currently delegating all contacts to Xavi. The plan to send a Barça delegation to Doha has been frozen to facilitate the agreement. And it must be remembered that the masters of Al-Sadd share dynasty with those of Paris Saint-Germain. More than money, they are gestures. Despite this rather passive strategy, Barça sources convey optimism with the agreement and insist that Xavi is “what the first team needs now”. “He’s hungry and that’s what matters,” they add. At the same time, the Qatari club maintains a public position in which it defends that Xavi remains its coach.

The second open front has to do with the coaching staff that will accompany Xavi once he can leave the emirate. The intention of the Vallès native is to have his brother Òscar and Sergio Alegre as assistants, the physical trainer Ivan Torres and a trio of scouts led by David Prats. It is a modest team that, from the outset, would conform to the salary cap of the League. And it is that Barça is exceeded in this matter and can only spend three million euros in the relief of Koeman. In the future there would be the possibility of making changes in medical services and grassroots football, two areas that Xavi wants to have under control.

The third front, less urgent and pleasant, but much more expensive, is Koeman’s dismissal. Although Barça hope to reduce a million, the Dutchman and his staff technician are entitled by contract to receive almost 12 million in respect of the outstanding salary until June 30, 2022 and the postponements agreed will now be a year with the management board. “Negotiations are going well,” Laporta says. Those interested, however, are not up for the task of giving up the money that belongs to them.

More than 35 million in coach changes

With this change of coach, Laporta and his board will be widening the hole that Bartomeu began to open in early 2020, when he fired Ernesto Valverde. According to the 19/20 report, the former president had to dedicate 12.9 million to the cessation of Txingurri, who had a contract until June 2021 and has already forgiven part of what was due to him. These were pre-pandemic times, in which Barça survived the crisis thanks to a privileged turnover. Things changed with the arrival of the covid. And Valverde’s fate was not set by Setión after 2-8 in Lisbon, when Barça fulminated him and denied him the relevant compensation – he had a contract until 2022 – citing an alleged “incapacity”. The Cantabrian denounced the club for non-payment of more than 4 million – it has to win in court – and his collaborators accepted a downward agreement to go and train Andorra de Piqué.

In Setión he was replaced by Koeman, who had a valid contract with the Dutch national team and assumed the payment of his freedom in exchange for two years of armor and a renewal. Since he has already left, this termination should be added to a total bill for coach changes that, adding Xavi, will exceed 35 million euros. These are galactic contract figures.

.

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending