The surprising withdrawal of Gerard Piqué in the middle of the season has caught Barça off guard. No one at the club was aware of the decision of the Catalan center-back until hours before he made his separation from the Blaugrana club official this Thursday on December 31. A goodbye that affects more emotionally than sportingly, although it does not mean that Barça will not make a move to cover his departure.
With a contract until June 2024, Piqué will stop receiving the corresponding salary for the remaining year and a half and is expected to waive the loyalty bonus that he had shortened. To this we must add that the player agreed to cut his salary in half in the middle of the pandemic and another part, like the rest of the squad, deferred it.
Some information suggests that the amount that Barça would save would be around 30 million euros, an amount that would allow lowering the always loaded wage bill, which not even without Messi has it been able to lighten. "He has amply demonstrated what he wants from Barça and understands our fair play situation," Laporta said shortly after the emotional video of Piqué announcing that he was hanging up his boots.
"He is very willing to help the club" added the Blaugrana president, who maintains some tension with Piqué and with the rest of the captains for his refusal to lower his salary, as recognized by Laporta himself and the director of football, Mateu Alemany, in the assembly of compromisers on October 9.
Piqué, who became the highest-paid central defender in the world when he agreed to renew with President Bartomeu in 2017, will leave salary space and a hole in the squad. The season opens to sign a central defender. If one does not arrive in the winter market, it will surely do so next summer.
The best placed is an old dream of the Catalan club like Iñigo Martínez. The 31-year-old Athletic Club center-back ends his contract in June 2023 and from January he is free to negotiate. The problems in Barça's defense in this first phase of the season, with injuries to Ronald Araújo, Jules Koundé and Andreas Christensen, have left the team in the middle of the defense in a box.
The possibility of incorporating a central defender is now on the table, although the probability of incorporating Iñigo Martínez in the next transfer advantage is remote because Athletic does not negotiate the departure of its players and usually refers to the termination clause (in this case of 80 million).
Piqué has been a very punctual solution, since after his bad game against Inter Milan he went from fifth center back to sixth. Xavi, who last summer already let him know that it would be very difficult for him to play, has preferred the last few times to field Marcos Alonso in that demarcation rather than put Piqué.
Barça had already planned to resort to the winter market to try to compensate for some areas of the field. The initial idea was to be reinforced with a midfielder (Jorginho, from Chelsea sounds good) and a right-back who would raise the level of the current ones (Sergi Roberto and Bellerín). We will have to see how many new faces arrive in Barcelona.
