FC Barcelona: El Bara and their captains further every day: the umpteenth turn of the screw

Joan Laporta and Mateu Alemany They shot the captains and other players whose contracts are very high due to the deferred payments they made due to the pandemic. Although names and surnames were not given, but there are five players whose salaries are those that are taxed with special incidence on the wage bill: Gerard Piqu, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, Frenkie de Jong and Ter Stegen. For a long time, the club has been trying to reduce its chips in order to lower that mass and have more room to sign.

signed contracts

The players defend themselves by saying that they already forgave money and that they postponed their salary payments when the club asked them to due to the drop in income during the pandemic. And they no longer want to lose more money. They are within their rights because those contracts have been signed and the club must accept it. There is no turning the page here. It is true that they were made during Bartomeu’s stage in the presidency and with some more than doubtful criteria, but the contracts are absolutely legal.

What the club is clear about is that they want end these contracts. “The goal is for them to disappear,” Mateu Alemany said this Sunday, words that the players did not like. And they got to work. In the first place they used the diplomatic route. That is, try to get the players to forgive that money. But there was no agreement because all of them reaffirmed their contracts.

We want those contracts to disappear

Mateu Alemany, Football Director of Barcelona

Squeezing the captains

The next measure was the pressure in a sporting manner. Xavi spoke with some of those players, as was the case with Gerard Piqu, in which he made it clear to them that they were no longer going to play like they used to. They lost their status as untouchables and fixed holders. An invitation to leave the club. Xavi is fulfilling his role. Piqu and Alba are playing very little and other players like Kound, Araujo, Christensen, Bucket or Marcos Alonso have passed them by.

The De Jong case

The topic Frenkie de Jong has also had its crumb. The club tried to transfer him as it was due to the high level of his contract. The Dutchman has not wanted to leave despite pressure from the club to do so. And he has also seen how has lost his status as owner. Especially while the market was open and they expected him to agree to leave.

Now the next step has been to clearly expose the problem before public opinion and society. That Laporta and Alemany agreed in their speech before the Assembly about the high salaries of some players it’s not by chance. Above all, because that refusal to lower their salary has had a direct impact on their pocket since they have had to guarantee to be able to sign Kound.

Busquets rejected the renewal offer

The case of Busquets is special because the captain ends his contract next June, although he I offered him a renewal for two years (to be able to defer payments) which he refused. The idea is to leave Barcelona to go to the MLS to try a new experience in the United States. If this is so, there will no longer be options to lower his contract, which is one of the highest in the squad.