2023-08-17 17:45:11
At Barça, nothing has been as clean as a patena for many years. The novelty is that someone like Anderson Deco, who until five minutes ago was Raphinha’s representative, can be the sporting director without it signifying any conflict of interest. Nobody’s face falls in shame because they’ve seen all kinds of things: Robert Fernández, Bartomeu signed him as technical secretary because ex-manager Javier Bordas was funny at a dinner, and Laporta went hiring the experienced Mateu Alemany as director of football despite having been, when he was still at Valencia, one of the executors of the Neto-Cillessen exchange that served to exemplify the disastrous legacy of previous managers. Now it’s the turn of a former player of Xavi’s age, friend of Laporta and his ex-brother-in-law Alejandro Echevarría, disciple of super agent Jorge Mendes and debutant in the position.
This landing with full powers to “mark the sports philosophy”, must be read as a new blow by Laporta to strengthen, even more, his hard core of trust: a mode of operation which should not be strange seeing the list of disloyal victims and friendly additions. Mateu Alemany was touched to death in May after the fleeting infidelity with Aston Villa and the president already put the cross on him by giving him a clandestine welcome to Deco with an unnatural coexistence. The Balearic knighthood, however, had no official expiry date and no one – neither the coaching staff nor most managers – expected the sudden announcement of the guillotine in mid-August. The official version is that already in May it was agreed “the release of his responsibilities once the current transfer market has ended”. Oh okay.
The countdown to September 1 resounds like in a suspense film and Mateu, the man of the balances of the fair play, they disarmed him in front of everyone. With the pending registrations on track and Dembélé packed, the feeling may be that work is done, but now important decisions are coming to finish it off: the future of Ansu – who Mendes is moving to win some heat -; the arrival of the right-back, long wanted by Xavi, Joao Cancelo – also from Mendes’ portfolio–, and the insistence of the super agent himself to bring Joao Felix – who has always seduced Laporta, but not Xavi–. What happens in the coming days will give us clues as to how the new balance of power at Barça is distributed and to what extent the coach is more alone now than he was a few weeks ago.
#full #powers #Deco.. #loneliness #Xavi