Barça’s good performance under Xavi Hernández has not only translated into the resurgence of the team, but also into a new approach for next season. The club’s transfer policy, according to the coach and the coaching staff, will focus on reinforcing the squad in its community rather than hiring a star, around whom the project of the future will be built. «The star is the team. The star will be the team,” he says. Joan Laporta in an interview with El Periódico de Catalunya.
The president, like the Barça fans, echoed the information in the newspaper L’Equipe that spoke of a reborn interest of the Barça by Kylian Mbappé. “We are used to show business”, values Laporta, stressing that the club has “a marked line” in another direction that does not point to Mbappé. Nor to Erling Haland, once the economic dimension that his hiring would suppose with the transfer price to Borussia Dortmund, the commissions requested by the footballer’s father, his agent and the striker’s file, of the footballer, are known.
“We’re Not That Twisted”
“I will not talk about these players or others because I would be doing a disservice and making prices more expensive,” argued Laporta, giving up, precisely, making them more expensive for players who are not in Barcelona’s orbit. “We are not so twisted here,” says the leader, knowing that inflation in the market sometimes rises artificially.
“We will not make a team dependent on a player”, says Laporta
That line marked by Barça points to the signing of four footballers. The name of two has already transcended: the central Andreas Christensen (Chelsea) and the midfielder Franck Kessie (Milan). There will be two more at least: a left back and a forward. The number of signings will increase with the number of casualties that are recorded. But also depending on the income generated. It is not just an ideological will or a purely football approach, but also the state of economic ruin.
Three of the four winter signings (Dani Alves, Adama Traoré and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang) arrived at zero cost. Christensen and Kessié will land free. Barça cannot compete in the market with money –for the time being, as long as three operations that the entity is managing do not materialize: the sale of 10% of television rights to CVC or another fund, 49% of Barça Studios and 49 % of BSM– also having a negative salary limit of minus 144 million.
“We work to improve a team that progresses. The philosophy is to enhance the team, that the team be the star. We want to empower it to be stronger, more mature and more efficient. We will not make a team dependent on one player. It would be a mistake” , explains Laporta in his office at the Camp Nou, abhorring the media signing concept: “Players become media coverage when they come to Barça.”
The recent experiences with Ousmane Dembélé, Philippe Coutinho and Antoine Griezmann, quoted in chronological order at their appearance at the Camp Nou, also lead Laporta to deviate from the path followed by Josep Maria Bartomeu: “We will not inflate the market in an absurd way as it was done in the past”. The new policy or old policy, nuances the president alluding to his first term, takes up the idea of reestablishing the pay scales and to them the new signings must submit, assures the president, who at the same time is acting as general director after the departure of Ferran Reverter.
Goodbye to the auction
Laporta has withdrawn Barça from the auction room after knowing in depth the real economic situation of Barça. The leader affirms that also by conviction.
“We will not help create situations that are detrimental to the team,” he maintains, happy for the good atmosphere established by Xavi in the locker room. “Nor will we address operations that further harm Barça’s economy, which is still not recovered. And, even if it were healthy, it would not do according to what operations based on sporting criteria and, I would say, even moral,” Laporta reasons.
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The club wants to send another message to the market, with the conviction that the first message was broadcast on Sunday in Madrid. Barca has returned.
Laporta is reluctant to proclaim it. No objective has been achieved, even though the team is not only among the top four, but is close to second place, and will play the Europa League quarterfinals against Eintracht Frankfurt. “It is evident that we have had talented and virtuous players throughout our history, but the first thing is the team”, Laporta signs, expectant before the outcome of the League.