jordi cruyff asks to “modernize and balance the squad” of Barça. And the club, as revealed by one of the members of the technical secretariat, has a plan to strengthen the team. But a plan with several open routes subject everything “to what can be done and pending fair play”, as already happened in the January window. An idea to revive a team that has chained three consecutive defeats (Eintracht, Cádiz and Rayo), which have taken them away from any possible title aspiration. An idea to end so many blank years.
A plan to modernize a squad that has become unbalanced over time (there is no natural replacement, not even for Jordi Alba neither for Busquets) where the four winter signings (Alves, Ferran Torres, Aubameyang and Adama) have allowed the team to climb from ninth place to second in the League. Although they have been unable to give Barça competitive vigor to win titles. Neither the Spanish Super Cup, nor the Copa del Rey, nor the Europa League, nor, of course, the League.
“More than numbers, what we have to do is modernize concepts and we have to be open to those changes. It has also helped that we have had a good run in recent months. Sometimes the answers give themselves”
Jordi Cruyff, Barça technical secretary
“More than numbers, what we have to do is modernize concepts and we have to be open to those changes. It has also helped that we have had a good run in recent months. Sometimes the answers give themselves,” he indicated. Jordi Cruyff, convinced that the sinuous and irregular trajectory of the team, especially with this unexpected blackout, offers much more precise information about the magnitude of the change that must be made. If it can be done, of course.
“Football has changed, like the needs of the team”, said Jordi Cruyff at the inauguration of a Cruyff Court in Plaça de la Generalitat de Constantí (Tarragona). “We have a plan A, a plan B, a plan C until we know what we can do. It depends on how we can go to the market and when we have more clarity about fair play, what is possible? and what is not?” .
In this sense, and when asked when Barça could fight for titles, the Barça executive has been forceful. “That depends on how we can strengthen ourselves. But the important thing is to have an idea, balance”, said Jordi Cruyff.
“For a crack to work there are others that let it work well, that’s balance”
Jordi Cruyff, Barça technical secretary
A roadmap already started in winter and that must have its complete execution this coming summer, aligned, according to what he said Jordi Cruyff, with the idea expressed by Xavi, the technician, and Mateu Alemany, Barça’s director of football. They all agree on the need to have “more balance” in the template. And in all its lines.
“For a crack to work there are others who let him work well, that’s balance & rdquor ;, stressed Jordi, who should be the new Barça technical secretary at the end of this season, a position that has been vacant since the resignation of Ramon Planswhich occurred last November just after the arrival of Xavi to replace Koeman.
He didn’t want to talk about names. nor of Haland, unattainable for the anguished culé economy, nor of Lewandowski, more accessible although he has one year left on his contract with Bayern Munich. “I haven’t ruled anyone out. The only thing you do is annoy the clubs where they play. I’m more concerned about the squad,” he said. jordi cruyffwho, when asked about the future of the Polish striker, recalled that “we are the last to say, but dreaming is free”.
“I said that in the face of the criticism he received, Frenkie de Jong is a highly valued player at the club and in the world of football and you know that too”
Jordi Cruyff, Barça technical secretary
It all depends on the will of Bayern, who are looking for relief from Lewandowski (33 years). Nor did Jordi want to be very specific about the future of Frankie de Jong, angry with the change of Xavi in the duel against Rayo and one of the players with the largest market in European football: Paris SG, Bayern Munich and Manchester City are attentive. The same clubs that wanted to sign him almost three years ago when the Dutchman chose to come to the Camp Nou.
“I said that given the criticism he received, he is a highly valued player at the club and in the world of football and you know that too,” the Barça executive told reporters.
a profound revolution
But Jordi’s message went far beyond names. It was a philosophical message, conditioned, at all times, by the hardships that shake the club, which does not even have the salary fair play to sign up new players. At the moment, he has already hired two. And both at zero cost: the Danish central defender Christensen (Chelsea) and the Ivorian midfielder Kessié (Milan).
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But it is little. The magnitude of the Barça revolution is much broader still. “Football is changeable. There are some concepts that must be changed & rdquor ;, the executive has said to strengthen that idea of modernity. Barça has become old. It does not compete in Europe. Not in Spain. A Copa del Rey in the last three years reveals that he has become outdated. Not with Messi. Not even without Messi.
“We have to be open to these changes. Those who do not advance are left behind. We have had a great run, now not so much,” he said after specifying that “we must not only stay where we were a month ago but where we were in November and December “.