“I end the season pissed off and disappointed”
BARCELONA, 25 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of FC Barcelona, ??Joan Laporta, said he was “hurt” with the player’s agent Gavi, former soccer player Iván de la Peña, for in his opinion being “playing and comparing” with the renewal offer presented by the club.
“We don’t understand. He is a player that we all like; he is 17 years old, has a magnificent present and future at Barça, and we don’t understand why his representative is playing and comparing. I think that the club’s proposal, at our levels salaries, it is more than acceptable”, he assured in an interview with the newspaper L’Esportiu collected by Europa Press.
In addition, the president assured that the offered salary levels will not be exceeded. “I don’t want Barça to continue in the line followed by those who preceded us and who have led Barça to ruin. We must put criteria on it, and that is what we are doing. If we have players who come out of the quarry, we make them a very good present and future offer and it turns out that your representative is comparing and delaying the decision; it is understandable that I do not like the situation. I would encourage you to accept it as soon as possible, because it also helps us to plan”, he added. .
According to Laporta, De la Peña has had the renewal offer on the table for “a long time.” “We have no news that he has accepted it. The news we have is that he is comparing and that at some point he will have to say something. We have already stated our position and, for the moment, it is not accepted by the player’s agent” , he stated.
On the other hand, about whether Ousmane Dembélé will have played his last game as a Blaugrana in the friendly in Australia, he commented that his agents also already have the proposal and a date to decide. “There is no more margin. We have been preparing for the next season for a long time and it is an issue that we have stuck, because the agent does not respond to the offer,” he lamented.
“It seems that they are making a counterproposal. There is a priority at the moment, which is to straighten out the economy to have ‘fair play’. There are many players that we have promised and operations that are pending and LaLiga is not open to giving it to us. The criteria that follows is very restrictive”, he explained about that financial ‘fair play’ that they must comply with to undertake signings.
Asked if they would have room to sign Robert Lewandowski, who wants to leave Bayern Munich despite having one more year on his contract, he was restrained. “Lewandowski has one more year on his contract with Bayern and that is the situation. And that’s it, I can’t say more. Let everyone work. We must respect that he has one year on his contract with Bayern. He is a player with a lot of quality, which we like a lot too, but he has a contract,” he reiterated.
Again on that salary limitation, he charged against LaLiga and the “perverse double reality” in which they live by the criteria of the competition. “The way they react to a situation like that of a club like Barça, which needs to generate income, is unlikely. But we are doing it, even if we generate certain income, LaLiga’s criteria would not allow us to have a salary margin. We respect the regulations, but we understand that they are strict and are a comparative offense with other countries,” he lamented.
“We are talking with LaLiga about these issues, but we see a very entrenched position. In summary: according to LaLiga, not even by earning 600 million euros could we have a salary margin. If we make an operation between these options that we have to generate income, they would still cause us problems The latest news we have is this: It is difficult to live with these restrictive and strict criteria set by the professional soccer league,” he added.
Asked about the sports balance of the season, he was “pissed off” and “disappointed” with the first soccer team. “I end the season pissed off and disappointed. Disappointed because, although I am aware that we have had injuries, you cannot lose against Cádiz, Rayo and Villarreal at home,” he said.
“I am disappointed with the team’s attitude. I have suffered as much or more than Xavi with that lack of character. I don’t understand it and it has been a great disappointment. This team has never had leadership and I have been disappointed and angry” , plot.
However, he saves Xavi. “Once we change the coach, the team improves. Xavi has done very well. We found ourselves with a disastrous last stretch of the previous season. The first of this one was, we improved with the change in the bench, and the end The season has been bad. It is a team that is still under construction, that must be strengthened, and we have not had the necessary answers to make up for the absences due to injuries that we have had,” he assessed.
“When it seemed that we were resurfacing and we had the hope that it could go well, we have had a series of circumstances and, beyond the injuries or certain decisions that have been made in the games of the direct rivals, we have not had enough wardrobe to face this league final in the ascending line in which we were going. This leads us to reaffirm ourselves in the idea that we must strengthen the team and we must make important decisions”, he concluded.