ONE | system
Who will be sold? Fati, Torres and Rafinha (Reuters)
Barcelona’s painful loss to Real Madrid highlighted the need for the Catalans to revolutionize the squad ahead of the summer. The team understands that they need to add proven players, but for that to happen they must also sell. In ‘Sport’ it was reported that the club will listen to offers for almost all the players and that the coaching staff will be the one to decide. The priority is for the players with the fewest minutes so far this season to leave.
The club aims to bring in over 120 million euros from player sales in the summer, when in terms of loan players only Obda Maussona is set to return, which means that other loanees such as Samuel Umtiti and Nico Gonzalez will be placed on the market. The names of Jordi Alba, Enso Fati, Fran Torres and Rafinha are on the agenda in terms of players to be sold, with Spain believing for sure that at least one of the last three will leave.
Club president Juan Laporte plans to ask all players on the squad to take a pay cut, hoping it will help the club save around €70 million. In ‘Sport’ they emphasize that the team can clearly return the investment on Rafinha and that they will have to sell players in order to register players like Gabi, Ronald Araujo and Alejandro Balda in the squad.
The club will not consider selling only Araujo, Gabi, Pedri and Frankie de Jong under any circumstances, so the team still has a very long summer ahead of them. As for Leo Messi, the Catalans are optimistic that despite the tensions with La Liga president Javier Tebas following the Negira affair, the league will do what is necessary to help the team get the flea back. Barcelona and the league will meet and Laporte is waiting for final confirmation from the player about his intention to leave Paris in order to make him an official contract offer for the season. He does not want to repeat the mistake from 2021 so the Argentine left, when at the time he first agreed with the player and only then checked the possibility of signing his contract in La Liga.
