BarcelonaThe bittersweet hangover at Can Barça after a controversial draw – marked by the performance of Mateu Lahoz – against Espanyol left some messages beyond sporting doubts in the return to competition. Even with the precautionary measure that allowed Robert Lewandowski to play in the derby, the Blaugrana team did not do enough to defeat the eternal citizen rival, who offered great solidarity work in defense.
In a match conditioned by the stoppage of the League championship due to the World Cup dispute, Xavi Hernández opted for an eleven with some mandatory changes. Like the absence of Ousmane Dembélé and Jules Kounde, since they were the last to join the training sessions to have reached the final of the World Cup. Before the stoppage, the French winger had started in 11 of the 14 games played up to that point in the League, but against Espanyol he did not come on until the 60th minute.
This led Xavi to bet from the start on a trident – unheard of until the derby – made up of Ansu Fati on the left, Lewandowski as a battering ram and Raphinha on the right wing. Neither the Spanish-Guinean nor the Brazilian had a good game and this led the coach to change the wings of the attack at game time, and gave entrance to Ferran Torres and Dembélé. In this way, Egarenc played all his attacking pieces, except for Memphis Depay.
Despite the fact that Barça needed a goal to try to undo Joselu’s equalizer in the 73rd minute, the Dutch striker followed the whole game from the bench. The duel was complicated by the expulsion of Jordi Alba with just under 15 minutes remaining, which led to the entry of Kounde (for Frenkie de Jong) to tidy up the defense and Xavi also preferred to give Balde entrance to occupy the left lane, removing Sergi Roberto, who had acted as a right-back. In this way, Xavi used up the five changes, because aside from the entry of Dembélé and Ferran, Busquets had previously entered for Gavi, who could not continue due to lumbar discomfort arising from an entry.
Register the new contracts of Araujo and Gavi
Thus, Memphis was the only attacker who did not play a single minute against Espanyol. The Blaugrana coach does not have the slogan not to let him play, although he knows – and accepts – that the club’s priority is to transfer him this winter market. Barça’s reasons are clear: the international with the Netherlands ends his contract in June and this season has a substantially higher fee – as compensation – than the one he signed last year to be able to come at the request of Ronald Koeman. For this reason, the idea of the Blaugrana sports dome would be to transfer Memphis this winter market to try to take a financial pinch and free themselves from the striker’s file.
In fact, this would be the fastest way to register the new contracts of Ronald Araujo and Gavi. Both have renewed with Barça, but in practice – and in order not to exceed the economic control of the League – they continue to play with their old contracts, which are not even professional footballers, but with those who played in the subsidiary and youth, respectively. The Barcelona sports management admits to the ARA that the “priority” this January is to be able to register these contracts. Just as they admit that with the fair play still exceeded with around 30 million euros they will not sign this winter, they also have their necks down that Memphis will not leave.
The club suspect that the Dutchman will use up the six months left on his contract, collect what is owed to him and then be free to leave without leaving anything in the coffers, allowing him to collect a transfer fee to his new destination. The 28-year-old striker, who did not want to leave for Juventus in the summer, has suitors in European football. And, although Memphis is aware of Barça’s intentions to transfer him, he also knows that if he stays until June, he will not be ostracized by Xavi either. He does not start as a starter, but if he continues he will be another “element” that the coach could take advantage of, as he has been doing so far.
Suspicions with Memphis before the World Cup
However, Memphis was surrounded in controversy just before the World Cup. At the end of September, he injured his left femoral biceps in a match with his national team. Barça calculated that in 20 days he could be recovered, with approx timings similar to those of Kounde, who was discharged before the Clasico after recovering from a similar injury.
The Blaugrana physios and doctors detected that Memphis was not in as much of a hurry to recover as the Frenchman and even interpreted that he wanted to reserve himself so as not to have any scares before the World Cup. Even Xavi said publicly that he hoped to have it back for the last game before the Qatar date. Memphis has always denied it and until the third match of the group stage of the World Cup it did not start as a starter. In the first two games he did it from the bench.
