BarcelonaTwo and a half years later, Chen Yansheng will land this Wednesday in Barcelona. The largest shareholder and president of Espanyol is returning to Catalonia once restrictions have been relaxed for travelers returning to China. Yansheng’s agenda includes some institutional visits to Madrid (to the headquarters of the League and the RFEF) and also to Barcelona with different administrations. His physical presence, however, will serve particularly to speed up the moves that Espanyol still need to make in this final stretch of the transfer market.
Although telephone contact is frequent between the noble offices of Cornellà-El Prat and Canton, the time difference causes certain delays in decision-making, since the club’s executives cannot carry out any operation of certain relevance without their approval . Whether in China or Catalonia, the meetings held by Yansheng have a common element, Vega Sicilia wine. He does not accept other brands, the Asian businessman, who has come to leave to open bottles that some employees of the club have been giving him since his arrival in Catalan lands.
The same predilection he feels towards the mentioned brand of wine he shows with those people who manage to earn his trust. One of the clearest examples, in Spanish, is the loyalty he showed until the last day with the former white-and-blue sporting director, Joaquín Pérez Rufete. All in all, despite being from Alicante one of the main people responsible for the non-continuity of Rubi and the architect of an Espanyol that was relegated to Segona 27 years later, despite having invested more than 75 million euros. The relationship between the two was very good, especially after the latter decided to be the first team coach in the final stretch of the relegation period.
The economic legacy left by Rufete’s legacy is, precisely, one of the main slabs that Espanyol is dragging in this market. The white-and-blue entity has released 15 signings this summer, some of which are located in the highest salary levels of the staff (Diego López, David López and Wu Lei, in addition to Vargas and Embarba, who will leave this week ). With the departures announced, the club will save close to half of the staff’s wage bill, around 30 million euros.
Less salary margin
Last season, the League allowed Espanyol to have a salary cap of 77.8 million euros, almost 15 of which corresponded to player repayments. This financial year (2022-23), the cost of outstanding repayments increases to 16 million euros. This is one of the factors that most negatively affect when calculating the available salary margin, but not the only one. To the equation must be added the losses of 11.4 million euros recorded in the 2021-22 financial year, as a result of the drop in income due to the descent to Segona and the pandemic. It is also necessary to take into account the low figure generated in transfers in the last three years (about 11.5 million euros paid in about thirty players). While it is true that Chen himself preferred to take the losses and slow down some exit operations (such as that of Embarba, in Mexico, last January), the vast majority of signings made in recent years are veteran players who are not could be revalued.
This cocktail of factors will cause Espanyol to see its salary cap lowered for the coming season. Sources from the white-and-blue entity also explain to the ARA that they rule out, for now, executing new capital increases or activating economic levers that involve a temporary partial sale of some of the club’s assets beyond of 10.95% of the audiovisual rights transferred to CVC in exchange for around 80 million euros. Espanyol had three seasons (until 2023-24) to spend 15% of these funds (around 12 million euros) on improving the squad. A part was invested during the past year, while the rest will be used up in the current financial year. The future of RDT, still uncertain a week before the closing of the market, is the only lever that the club foresees to be able to take on reinforcements of a higher level.
