Barce News2
Juan Laporta inherited a team with salaries well above market value for its players and growing contracts as the seasons went by. Therefore, he had to try to renegotiate some salaries to reduce the wage block, and in some cases to get rid of some players who did not fit into Xavi Hernandez’s plans.
At that time, Gerard Pique did not enter the accounts of the Catalan coach, and because of his refusal to leave the club, he became fourth among the team’s defenders.
In this way, he has occupied a secondary role, behind players such as Ronald Araujo, Andreas Christensen and Jules Conde. A situation that Pique was not used to, so he finally decided to retire rather than go to any other team.
Now, as we said, a similar situation will happen with another player from the “holy cows” of FC Barcelona: Jordi Alba. The left-back maintains a great personal relationship with his coach, but on the sporting front, his time at Barcelona appears to be over.
As happened with Pique, the arrival of new players, in this case Alejandro Balde, left Jordi Alba on the bench. Although he may accept the role of substitute, the truth is that for Xavi, Marcos Alonso is still ahead of him in the ranking of players for this position.
The Catalan entity intends to get rid of the player with the highest salary in the team. His departure could allow some new signings to arrive, but the Spanish full-back has other plans. And it is that despite his club’s financial problems, he wants to stay until the end of his contract.
As already happened with Pique, Xavi plans to have a conversation with his player to explain his plans and urge him to leave. A conversation conveying to him that his role will be secondary and less important over time.
In the case of Pique, halfway through the season, he realized it wasn’t for him and decided to hang up his boots. There is no expectation that the left-back will retire, but Jordi Alba is expected to reach an agreement with Joan Laporta and the Barcelona board of directors to terminate his contract or at least reduce his salary.
Source: El Nacional
