Deco’s appointment raises a lot of questions…

In front of the cameras, it is often – and it is logical – Joan Laporta that we see when it comes to FC Barcelona. But the real strongman of the club is Mateu Alemany. He is the one who oversees and manages the entire football section of the club, dealing with the transfer window, player contracts, financial issues and La Liga fair play, who ensures that everything goes well at La Masia etc… A handyman who will leave the club this summer. Everything indicates that he will join Aston Villa, which offers him a more than ambitious project. Some media, however, indicate that he will do the summer transfer window with Barça, and will go to Birmingham afterwards. It is Deco, the former Barça player, among others, who will replace him in this role of director of football for the culé club.

An arrival that will please fans nostalgic for FC Barcelona from the 2000s, but which still raises questions. First: is he really competent to take on this role? This is a question that we can legitimately ask ourselves in view of the lack of experience of the former Lusitano international, especially in this complicated context that the club is going through, with a colossal construction site on the financial level which prevents him to register the new contracts of certain players and gives him extremely limited room for maneuver for the transfer window. To occupy this role, you need extremely advanced knowledge in many areas, and knowing football well or having a network are unfortunately not enough. We will still give him the benefit of the doubt, and it should be noted that he will not arrive in unknown territory, since he had already worked on a few files in an extra-official way for the club, such as the arrival of Aubameyang at the time.

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Conflict of interest everywhere

On the other hand, where we can ask ourselves real questions, it is on his double-cap. Indeed, he is currently a players’ agent, a function that seems difficult to reconcile with that of club manager. Even more when some of his players are at Barça, like his foal Raphinha. There is clearly a conflict of interest, and Spanish media like AS do not fail to point this out. Especially since the Brazilian winger is one of the players the club is thinking of selling to bail out the coffers this summer, and it’s quite eccentric to imagine Deco having to manage this file both as Barça manager and agent. of the player and to be able at the same time to find the best solution for both parties…

Deco is also very close to Jorge Mendes – who has power in Barcelona and has several players like Fati or Baldé in his stable – which also risks creating conflict of interest problems on other issues. His friendship with Joan Laporta can also be a concern, in the sense that it is always good to have divergent points of view within a club, especially when it comes to the transfer window. Will Deco be able to face Laporta? What will be its power and scope? When we know that the president’s affairs with Mendes or Zahavi and his interference in certain files were one of the reasons which pushed Alemany to leave, we can imagine that Deco was placed because he will not necessarily oppose certain things that others would not have accepted. One thing is certain, however; work, there will be plenty of it this summer…