Koundé no or Koundé yes. Barcelona continues plucking the daisy. 24 hours after the initial whistle of tonight's game in San Sebastián, Xavi Hernández still did not know for sure whether or not he could count on the French central defender to face Real Sociedad. The coach had to prepare the match with an asterisk in the position in the axis of the defense because the unknown could not be cleared up all week. The suspense has settled in Can Barça.
The sports leadership spent all Saturday working to narrow down the options for Xavi to have Koundé available this Sunday. Right now, the most viable options to make room for him are the possible sale of Aubameyang to Chelsea or the departure, with the freedom letter, from Memphis to Juventus.
The Frenchman was left out of the inscriptions on Friday, August 12, when LaLiga accepted all the documentation for the so-called fourth lever, the sale of 24.5% of Barça Studios to Orpheus Media. He was the only one who did not enter. And in eight days, despite having advanced conversations with several teams, he has not managed to release salary mass to be able to sign the former Sevilla player.
Signed for 50 million on July 28 – the last to arrive, for the moment – Koundé will miss the first two games of the championship in case those bureaucratic and economic problems that tie the Blaugrana club's hands persist.
"The priority now is to sign up Jules Koundé", the Egarense coach made it clear in his press conference before Saturday at noon. Just in case, Xavi chose not to provide the squad list until this morning while waiting for news about the Frenchman. "We need outlets," he confirmed. The technician is getting used to living with the mystery until the end.
Sources from the locker room are confident that there is time to have that luxury reinforcement at the last minute to face Real. Up to a few hours before the match, permission can be obtained. After approving the operation, LaLiga will send the information to the Federation, which is the one that processes the file. But it is difficult.
One of the first clues will be when it is known who the members of the Barça expedition are and whether or not the French defender gets on the plane to San Sebastián, which leaves at 11:00 a.m. from El Prat airport.
It would be a good sign if Koundé travels and, on the other hand, Aubameyang or Memphis do not take that flight. The two strikers have the key to what happens from now on in Barça's defense because Piqué's new contract, very low, and Busquets' salary deferral were stuck.
The name of Dest will hardly appear on the list, about which the technician was blunt. "He already knows the situation we have," he sentenced. While Umtiti, former owner of the shirt with 23 – with which Koundé played Gamper – has his transfer to Lecce on track, although the savings are nil as the club will take care of his salary.
Aware of the complexity of the cases, Xavi does not even rule out taking both strikers to the Basque Country and making them play. “At the moment neither Auba nor Memphis have come out and we can use them”, he pointed out. In fact, the Gabonese, author of the Blaugrana winning goal last year at Anoeta, already played in the final stretch against Rayo on matchday one.
The Barcelona coach does not see Koundé as off-center or nervous about the outcome of his situation in case he is finally fit and may end up making his debut. “Jules looks fine to me. He is a natural leader”, he praised the mentality of him. The only sure thing that Xavi already knows is that he won't be able to line up Sergio Busquets, sanctioned after his expulsion on matchday one.
