Madrid
FC Barcelona do not have İlkay Gündoğan for this season. Despite the fact that he was one of the most outstanding players of last season, playing almost every game for the Blaugrana, the sporting management has decided to let him go in order to sign other players such as Dani Olmo. Mainly because he had one of the highest salaries in the first team and because the club has not been able to let go of other players such as Raphinha, Frenkie De Jong or Ferran Torres, who have not had offers attractive enough to be considered by the club.
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In this way, FC Barcelona is once again parting ways with one of its most recent signings. Last season, the Blaugrana signed Oriol Romeu, Joao Félix and Joao Cancelo. While the former returned to Girona just a year later, the two Portuguese have left the club after their respective loans ended. On the other hand, Iñigo Martínez was not registered in La Liga until just a few days before the start of the competition and Vitor Roque is being looked for an immediate exit as it is understood that he is not ready to play for FC Barcelona.
Laporta’s failed signings
And the list of failed signings since Joan Laporta arrived only continues to grow. Since returning to the role of president in March 2021, Joan Laporta has signed around twenty players. Among them some who have worked out, such as Jules Koundé, Robert Lewandowski or Andreas Christensen. However, most of them have ended up leaving through the back door due to the club’s financial difficulties or because they simply have not worked out. From Aubameyang to Memphis Depay, including others such as Eric García or Franck Kessié, to name a few.
🇩🇪 👋 Gundogan, a matter of hours before his departure to City I becomes official @santiovalle
👀 “If Barça were in a normal situation, Gundogan would be important”
💰 “Barça needs the salary cap to sign Olmo, it’s a purely economic issue” pic.twitter.com/3qGTQ4OhZV
— The Stringer (@ellarguero) August 20, 2024
A situation that has been discussed at length on El Larguero, where analysts such as Bruno Alemany admit that they do not understand the strategy of the Blaugrana club: “The sporting policy of Barça since Laporta arrived has been absolutely erratic. The star signing who was supposed to be key to Barça’s next few years is being given the boot when not even a year has passed since he played his first game.” But it is not just that they want to get rid of Gündoğan. In his view, the sporting management is undoing everything that has been built in these three years: “If Xavi had stayed, I would have wanted Lewandowski, who was the star signing of the previous season, to have left. If Barça could have, they would have also transferred Ferrán Torres, who was also one of the club’s great signings.”
“The situation is absolutely grotesque”
After speaking about other failed signings such as that of Franck Kessié, Bruno Alemany has acknowledged that FC Barcelona has a problem with its sporting project and that it is very difficult to return to the top this way: “The number of players who have left is uncountable. This makes it very difficult for the club to function on a sporting and economic level.” An opinion shared by Miguel Martín Talavera, who believes that the situation of the club is “absolutely grotesque”: “You have signed Dani Olmo and you cannot register him.”
After Álvaro Benito asked Jordi Martí about this situation, the Catalan journalist acknowledged that Laporta makes improvisation his way of governing and that, if Barça wants to recover, it will have to make a painful sale because the levers no longer work. That is why he is excited about the emergence of young talents from the youth academy such as Lamine Yamal or Pau Cubarsí, among others, since they are the ones who will be able to sustain the team for the next few years.
Listen to ‘El Larguero’ in full
This is a fragment of ‘El Larguero’, with Álvaro Benito. You can listen to the full program here:
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