BARCELONA – Barcelona in the 2021-22 season will begin to take shape from the meeting that Joan Laporta and Ronald Koeman will hold this week.
After the first contact between the new president and the Dutch coach during the trip to Paris, Koeman announced on Saturday his intention to meet with the leader taking advantage of the League break to start planning the future of the sport of his staff and in this meeting, sources from the entity acknowledged to ESPN Esports, will begin to clarify the future of several Barça footballers.
The new board begins to know the financial reality of the club after the transfer of powers in which the manager transferred to him all kinds of documentation in which the delicate economic situation and the existing difficulty in strengthening the first team squad, a scenario largely unknown to the coach and which motivates that the intention to go to the transfer market is inevitably conditioned by a reduction in the payroll of the first team that must go through the departure of several players.
“The payroll is close to 90 percent of the club’s budget, UEFA recommends reducing it below 70 and the ideal would be for it to be 50 percent,” Carles announced publicly Tusquets, former chairman of the Management Board, in a clear warning of the difficulties that the new Barça management will face in carrying out its purposes. And that will initially force you to negotiate any casualties that Koeman may consider, and accept.
Barça need as much money for transfers as salary savings and the names of Coutinho, Umtiti, Net, Junior Firpo, Braithwaite and Pjanic are indisputably on stage … Although the signing of some of them they are not amortized. The maxim of ‘Let out before entering’ is more evident than ever and if the cases of Net or Junior Firpo, willing to negotiate a transfer, is understood less problematic does not happen the same with Coutinho, Umtiti and Pjanic. With the last two mainly.
With a signing cost of 145 million in January 2018, still almost 60 to repay and another 40 of salary (gross) for the two remaining seasons of his contract, the case of Coutinho, now injured, does not cause doubt among leaders .
As happened in 2003 with Riquelme, the Brazilian has not adapted to Barcelona and it is important to find a way out, considering that he has a market in the Premier by adjusting the numbers to the maximum, risking to a minimal accounting loss if it could be passed on for less than that 60 million with the obvious savings it would mean for your salary.
Samuel Umtiti is fully amortized in terms of signing (25 million euros were paid for him at Olympique de Lyon in the summer of 2016) but the main problem is his high profile, above 15 million euros per year, and the two remaining seasons of his contract. Saving these 30 million total salary is considered transcendental, so a low-cost transfer is the ideal scenario … As long as the player gives his approval to a club that keeps him, or closer, to the emoluments he has in Barcelona.
Less easy is to find a way out for Martin Braithwaite, under contract until 2024, with a pending amortization at the end of this season of about 10 million euros and so unfavorable to accept his departure as difficult to place in a transfer that does not motivate accounting losses.
Pjanic … And Griezmann
Equally or more difficult is the case of Miralem Pjanic, who without entering into the plans of the coach still has three seasons of contract, 45 million euros to repay and a transfer little less than impossible to agree. The departure of the Bosnian midfielder could be facilitated through a transfer in the image and likeness of what happened to Coutinho last year, taking charge of the destination club with a salary close to 9 million euros .
And no less simple is the situation of Antoine Griezmann, who does not consider a way out, the figure is so recognized and questioned in equal parts at the club and the future venture will be the subject of debate until the end of the season. For the former Atlético player, there will be about 70 million euros left in the signing fee, but if this would not be an unattainable figure for some clubs that want him, adding the almost 30 that costs in gross salary annually make the utopian operation. Or almost.
RENEWAL OR SALE
Feeling like Lionel Messi is the philosopher’s stone of the project, trusting Laporta to snatch his approval for renewal to be with Oscar Mingueza (with whom he negotiates) the only player in the first team that ends his contract season, the sports plot will have to assess the future of the three players who finish it in 2022. All three, (Sergi Roberto, Ousmane Dembélé and Ilaix Moriba) in principle, enter the plans of the club (the last is indisputable) but while with Sergi Roberto he trusts in a pact without many setbacks, with Dembélé the situation is not, at all, clear.
Enjoying his best moment since arriving at Barça, the relationship between Dembélé and the club has not been idyllic in recent years and Laporta has to face a renewal in which the economic issue will have a transcendental weight. . With a salary of around 20 million euros, the club considers it necessary a reduction that does not know to what extent the player will accept, so that not reaching an agreement would not close the door to a transfer, especially having in note that because of his youth and quality Dembélé could mean a good financial injection, despite the risk of letting him go.
TRANSFERS WAITING
With all these conditions that the board of Laporta has on the table and are taken into account by Koeman, the signings that Barcelona can carry out would be, at the outset, waiting. Eric Garcia, Memphis Depay, Georginio Wijnaldum, Emerson and Erling Haaland are the names that are, with more or less importance, on the table and with whom a decision needs to be made. Haaland, it’s no secret, it’s the most coveted and hard-to-carry name. His arrival would mean an investment of more than 120 million euros (excluding salary) and should specify the inevitable counterpart of emptying lockers in the locker room, in addition to the very difficult management.
However, and being the number one goal on the list, understanding the need to incorporate a striker with a goal, Barcelona is working with other options, as is the case of the Swedish Aleksander Isak, from Real Sociedad, the signing does not it would not be easy either, or the veteran Sergio Agüero, who ending his contract with Manchester City was already offered to Laporta during the elections but does not enjoy unanimity at the Camp Nou.
Depay and Wijnaldum, who would arrive with the letter of release, have the express favor of Ronald Koeman but while it remains feasible that of the Olympique de Lyon striker there is not at all as much security with the Liverpool midfielder. Barcelona denied information on Sunday that pointed to an agreement between the club and the player’s representative and at the Camp Nou his signing arouses many reservations, understanding that it would cut the growth of the youngsters in the squad, beyond Ilaix Moriba.
With Emerson the situation is not so definite. Barça, who bought him halfway with Betis in 2019 for 12 million euros, have the option of taking full rights for 6 million at the end of this season but have not decided whether this purchase would be to incorporate the Brazilian winger in the squad or for a later transfer for a higher figure, knowing the interest it arouses in Italian football.
As for Eric Garcia, having taken for granted an agreement for his signing without cost at the end of this season from Manchester City, Barça remains absolutely silent although this week there was speculation about a move away of the positions with their representatives