Barça's first team returns to work next Monday (yes, don't look surprised) and for now the club cannot register any new players. Moreover, of those who should have paraded, only Ferran Jutglà has done so, apparently the most honorable and upright of all those discarded, who will seek a life in Belgian football by leaving money to Barça. Bravo for him.
Xavi will therefore be in charge of players that he already tested last season and who are of no use to him, and he will have the indescribable additional company of elements such as Trincão, a skittish winger bought back in his day at the price of an intrepid winger (watch out: Jorge Mendes he can be a hair-growth seller from the Far West when he proposes it and wanders around the canteen again as if it were his own), like Pjanic, a midfielder who has forgotten that he was once a good midfielder, and Rey Manaj, who defines itself.
It is not difficult to imagine the face that Xavi put on last Monday's meeting with Mateu Alemany when he explained the situation to him: the best he could to hide his concern. Luckily he is a club man, as they say. Not caring would be frivolous. Barça played its last official game of last season against Villarreal on May 22. A month or so later, nothing has happened. Not even Gavi has renewed. It is also known that the first team will make a long tour of the US and that Roma have declined to play the Gamper after saying that they would play it, an ugly match that leaves the Barça club at the level of a hobbit in the european concert
It is possible that between now and Monday the only signings announced, that are not registered, will be those of Christensen and Kessié. By age (26 and 25 years, respectively), origin (Chelsea and Milan) and price (they arrive free) they are good operations, but, to be honest, few children will line them up for the moment in their ideal eleven of the Play.
The board has one month left to correct itself and turn around, to find the money to extend the salary limit (depreciating the players increased losses and it was not a great idea, by the way) and offer Xavi something that at least get closer to what he asked President Laporta to raise the competitive tone of his team. From experience we know that this directive is going against the clock (guarantees, levers...), but Xavi's in particular must end well. The coach is the piece that supports the invention. That can't fall. Starting because he doesn't deserve it.
