Joan Laporta and Mateu Alemany have once again raised their fingers at the Barcelona Captains and other players with a high contracts because of the different payments developed in the pandemic. They weren’t clear to put specific names but there are five players in total with their salaries taxing on the wage bill. They are Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, Marc-Andre ter Steven, and Frenkie de Jong.
It’s been a while since Barcelona is trying ways to decrease its wage bill and create more space to sign new contracts.
FC Barcelona captains point to the deals
The players speak in their favor saying that they’re already over the money and deferred their respective salary payments when they were asked by the club to do the same owing to the income drop during the pandemic.
They’re against forgoing any money further and it comes in their right because these are signed contracts and the club should not deny it.
There’s no denying that these arrangements came into existence during Josep Maria Bartomeu’s time when he was the president with some improbable criteria, but the deals are all legal.
“The objective is that they disappear,” said Alemany on Sunday. The words didn’t have a pleasing effect on the players.
Barcelona first tried taking another route, trying behind the scenes to get the players to give up on the money. However, there wasn’t any conclusion to the same.
The next step was to put pressure on them in a sporting manner. Xavi had a word with some of the players, as was the matter with Pique, where it was very clear that they were not going to play in the same way as they used to.
They have been gradually coming out of their status as regular starters, as Pique and Alba are appearing very little and other players like Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Andreas Christensen, Alejandro Balde, and Marcos Alonso have passed them too.
The Frenkie de Jong Incident
The matter of Frenkie de Jong has had its own problems. The club had tried to transfer him anyhow in the summer because of the high level of his contract.
He was not willing to leave despite being pressured by the club and he no longer belongs to the starter position.
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