Our board successfully forced out Arthur, in a swap deal with Miralem Pjanic with no logic but to save their asses. It is a difficult time for us fans right now. It seems like the management of the club decided to give up on the “more than a club” slogan. Moreover, they tossed one of our best young talents in order to balance the books before the end of the financial season in the end of june. But the story doesn’t end there.
As we already talked about in one of our videos, the club is facing an economic crisis. Moreover, it is probably worse than we think. The problems of the club existed for a long time now, and it got worse with the covid-19 world crisis. That’s why the players had to reduce their salaries in order for the club to pay other employees.
In that situation, the board had to sell players in about 70 million euros in order to balance the books. Otherwise, the board members would have to pay their own money in order to balance the books, and that is something that they didn’t want to do.
The club needed to sell ASAP
So for about two months we hear how the club is trying to sell almost every asset possible. It started with Todibo, Semedo, Umtiti, Dembele and Coutinho. But as time went by the club realized that the offers aren’t coming, or they are too small. And when the option to save the financial year by selling Arthur, Barça and Juventus tried to force the transfer to happen. In the beginning Arthur didn’t want to hear anything about that. But as time went by, the pressure on him grew, and in the end of the day the Brazilian decided to make the move, which will grow the income of the club by 70 million euros.
Becoming a joke
What do we get in return? Miralem Pjanic, who is a good player. But he doesn’t worth 60 million euros. It’s almost twice what Juventus payed for him 2 years ago, when he was younger and in better form. But the way finance works is that when you sell you write the whole amount in the yearly report. However, when you buy you write the amount paid, divided by the number of years in the contract. That means that on paper, Barça will write an income of 70 million euros, and outcome of 15 million euros, as he signed on a 4 years contract.
It’s fair to say that the club sold the future of the club in order to finance the present. It’s a pure business move that has nothing to do with football, and personally as a fan it makes me sick. The agenda of this board is buying players for a lot of money instead of growing our own players, and that vision is what got us into this mess in the first place. And instead of taking the responsibility for it, the board decided to force out our young player.
I think that if I was a young talent like De Jong a year ago, I would think twice before signing for Fc Barcelona. The Arthur – Pjanic swap deal shows no respect for the values of our club. It was the current board that got our club to this tough situation. However, as always the young talents are the ones to take the blame first.
Not the first time that it happens
Remember Thiago Alcantara? Many compared the midfielder to Xavi when he first started to play with the first team. But the fact that he was a La Masia graduate didn’t change anything for the board, who needed to finance the Neymar operation.
Back then, Thiago had a clause in his contract saying that if he didn’t play a certain amount of minutes, his release clause would drop massively. And guess what? In the last matches of the season he didn’t play, knowing that it will lead him to Pep’s Bayern. And that’s exactly what happened, as he and Alexis left, and we got Neymar. This time the swap deal of Arthur and Pjanic will allow our board to pay for a player. Therefore, we might see the arrival of Lautaro Martinez in the summer transfer window.
Again, with this board anything can happen. No player is safe but Messi. But if this board would stay beyond 2021, i’m sure the Argentinean will leave as well.
One more year and we’re done with that board…
Era end too soon
Less than two years passed since we all fell in love with Arthur. Since the beginning of his journey with us, He showed us that he can be out main midfielder for the next decade. Some compared him with Xavi, but at first I thought that it was unfair for him. But he seemed capable to cope with the pressure. Xavi himself told that he sees himself in Arthur, but it was unfair to search 30 years old xavi with 22 years old Arthur, but to compare 22 years old Arthur with 22 years old xavi. And when we compare both of them, Arthur might be even better than the catalan legend. Now we can only dream about Xavi coaching Arthur.
This board has only one value in their mind, and it’s surviving until 2021. They will do all they can, and that means using the newspapers and media channels in order to make it look like they saved the club by doing this swap deal.
Us English speaking fans are not what they’re aiming for, but the local old fans who only care about immediate results and ticket prices. And that’s why in the same day that the club closes this deal, we hear about how the players don’t want Quique Setien anymore. So now people will talk about the coach, the players and won’t talk about the board.
Becoming Milan?
Don’t get me wrong, Quique Setien disappoints me, because I didn’t want another valverde when he arrived. But the problems of the club are way deeper than the coach who didn’t even build the team. However, I don’t see him keeping his job after a trophy-less season. And the way we are looking it seems like we’re heading that way. The team looks lost, fragile and too dependent on messi. And even Messi can’t win alone.
But while other teams build themselves on young elite talents, we’re heading for the last year of the board’s era with a team that more than half of the players over 30, and we can’t be optimistic with the club’s situation. Just compare the legacy that Laporta leaved for Sandro Rossel, with pep in charge and a mix of young talents and world class players.
And what will Bartomeu leave for his successor? Huge debt and an old and tired team. It’s sad really. As Presidential candidate Victor font said the other day – Barça are going to become a new Milan. It will happen if we continue in that direction. The Arthur – Pjanic swap deal was only another bad move by our board.
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