“The club is worse than I imagined”: Joan Laporta explained the crude present that Barcelona is going through

The FC Barcelona prepares to face a new season with high expectations after the assumption of Joan Laporta to the presidency culé. The businessman began planning his project since his arrival in October, after replace Josep Maria Bartomeu, who resigned in the midst of a Barça crisis.

100 days later and already immersed in the day-to-day life of the club, the 58-year-old manager gave an extensive interview to the Catalan newspaper The vanguard in which he talked about everything and even assured that found Barcelona, ​​”worse than I expectedAnd that I was already expecting him in a very complicated situation ”.

In addition, after the recent incorporation of Memphis Depay, Laporta assured that other “three or four” signings will arrive. “We are going to make a very competitive team,” he said.

The most outstanding phrases

On the hardest decision he had to make: “All those that have involved terminating employees. It is very painful. We come to give a new impulse, and sometimes you have to make decisions that hurt, but we assume the consequences. We have arrived with force and it is being noticed ”.

Recently the dismissals of historical Barcelona fans were known as David Barrufet, Xavi Pascual or Guillermo Amor: “There is an economic base that guides us. Y we need to change, modernize… I have spoken with both David and Xavi, and I hope that Guillermo will be able to do so soon, to explain the reasons and to thank them for everything they have done for Barça ”.

“It was lost and nothing happened, we were moving forward but without conviction, without decisions being made, leaving everything to chance, we’ll see what happens. And no. Things are happening, things are going to happen and we will see to it that these things happen for the good of Barça ”.

“When I say that I have found the club worse than I expected it is because there are some contracts that condition us a lot ”, assured. “Existing contracts can be changed or reorganized, and then there are more drastic measures that we would like not to have to take,” he added.

“We are trying to restructure the entire squadWe have found great differences between wages, in a market that the only thing that will allow us to do is exchanges, bartering. This takes time, a lot of skill and a lot of juggling here and there. “

“Between salaries and amortizations we have a magnitude of 650 million euros, which is a figure greater than the total income of the club. These salaries in the market are now out of date, and it is difficult to reach agreements with other clubs because the salaries of Barça players are incomparable with those of other clubs. As for sales, unfortunately there will be few, “he explained about the salaries managed by the institution.

“We are going to make a very competitive team. We are already seeing it with the additions of Eric Garcia, of When Aguero and Emerson, and other players who are about to, “he said about the transfer window.

“Last week we missed one. There are club-states that can have any player, it is enough for them to love him ”, he acknowledged about the signing of Wijnaldum by PSG. “We look at a player, we work on him and a club comes, pays double and takes it. The player, especially according to his age, values ​​the salary before being in a club with projection ”.

On the renewal of Lionel Messi, that in 10 days he will become a free agent, he commented: “There is no stress because there is a lot of communicationWe understand the position of the other party and we know what we all want, so calm down. But if you ask me what I would like, I would say the sooner (sign) the better. It would be a pole of attraction for some operations that we have quite ready ”.

“What we want is for you to sign, hopefully for two years, that we win the Champions League next year and everything that lies ahead ”.

“(With Messi) We are in communication day yes, day no. He is excited. I am grateful for the desire it makes you to stay. We also made the play of Omen, what he is repeating every day to stay and sign now. Kun Agüero is helping ”.

Koeman He will finally complete his contract and will continue to be Barcelona’s coach despite the fact that his continuity was in doubt: “After talking to him three times, I saw that we could work together, collaborate and agree on many more things. than in which we could diverge. I am happy. I would have liked this not to have happened and I even told him, I don’t like to suffer or make people suffer, and perhaps Ronald for a period was uneasy, uncomfortable, and so was I.

“I was disappointed to have lost a League that I saw won. I told him the truth, that he did not understand why we had lost her. This process I think has been good for my relationship with Koeman, I think it is important that the president has a good relationship with the coach. Now I see that the conversation is much more fluid, we have said things to each other ”.

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