Two days ago we woke up for a “dramatic” day – Laporta and Koeman and the rumors said that it would be decisive. However, in the end it was a 25 meeting and the two sides scheduled another meeting. Meanwhile, in the same day, we understood that Gini Wijnaldum is close to sign for Barcelona. It took people by surprise, and many of them got angry with the Barça president Joan Laporta. Later, there were rumors that Koeman might stay for another year after all, and those fans became even angrier. But in my opinion, the story is bigger than that.
Just to make things clear – I’m not going to defend the signing of Wijnaldum. I don’t understand it, and I don’t want it. I think it will hurt the many talents that are currently there. Moreover, if Koeman would stay I’m sure Gini will become his ‘Rakitic’, and will play most of the matches. Therefore, although the Dutchman is not as bad as some will try to make him look, he’s not necessary. So I still hope that Laporta won’t sign him for Barça.
What if Bartomeu signed Wijnaldum?
I hear that a lot. “Some of you defend Laporta, while if Bartomeu would sign Wijnaldum, you wouldn’t shut up about it”. True. I would slander Bartomeu a lot more than the treatment that Laporta gets from me. But hey, Bartomeu earned it big time, and Laporta earned my respect years ago. I won’t defend every move he does, but I have a lot more patience for him, naturally.
For those of you younger folks: Not all the signings of Laporta did great for Barça. Just google names like Henrique, Keirrison for example. But overall, I trust Laporta to make us a great club again.
How is that different from signing players like Arda, Paulinho, Andre Gomes? The money issue. If the deal goes through, Gini will sign as a free transfer, and in the worst case, we can sell him in a year with a profit. Those other midfielders arrived for A LOT of money each.
The media knows nothing
I really enjoy seeing media sources like ‘Mundo Deportivo’ and ‘Sport’ just throwing names out there. It seems like with Laporta as president, they just lost their leak privileges. So one day Koeman stays, the other day Koeman will leave, and Barça are signing every player out there.
Looks like Laporta does his changes for Barça with patience and quietly. We don’t really know if he offered Koeman another year, or told him that he might leave. Names of coaches and players will keep coming as long as nothing official comes out. Because that’s what journalists do when they don’t know what to report.
What do we know?
- We knew that the financial status of the club is bad. So the short term solution of Laporta is to sign free agents for Barça. Players like Aguero, Eric Garcia, Wijnaldum and Depay will be less risky as they come for free.
- Laporta doesn’t want Koeman. Otherwise there was no need for Koeman to bring his agent to the meeting 2 days ago. However, getting rid of him will cost the club money they currently don’t have. The club already spent more than 20 Million Euros for compensating Valverde and Setien in the last 1.5 years. Adding 13 Million Euros to that for firing Koeman is a lot of money. So the decision here, for either way, will be a tough one.
- Selling players will be another issue, as players earn a lot of money and don’t want to leave. Getting rid of the salaries of players like Umtiti, Matheus and others will not be an easy task.
- How about La Masia? Since taking office in March, Laporta already signed players like Nico, Collado and others on a new contract. So I don’t think that there will be a problem there.
In the end, the summer didn’t even start, and people are already losing their patience. CALMA. There is a lot of ‘Fake News’ out there, so it’s better to not overreact to every rumor out there.
