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Four sports directors and 24 signings in five years

2020-02-21T01:29:45.305Z


Bad sports planning depersonalizes the team and leads to the arrival of Braithwaite and several sales


The signing of Martin Braithwaite, a last-minute reinforcement whose hiring was considered essential for the injuries of Luis Suárez and Dembélé, expresses the lack of planning and also the poor management of the sports area of ​​Barcelona. The lack of financial resources has conditioned the policy of ups and downs, and the team was skeletal with only 18 effective chips when facing the decisive phase of the season - with visits to Naples and the Bernabéu, after receiving Eibar - and a new game plan with Quique Setién, the coach who replaced the dismissed Ernesto Valverde. “It's very complicated to work because there are always many opinions and interests,” recite those who leave the club and have belonged to the technical secretariat, a message that even Jordi Mestre, sports vice president until seven months ago: “There are managers who feel coaches and sports directors, ”he said in an interview with Mundo Deportivo.

President Bartomeu has had up to four managers in the sports area, four antagonistic models that have made a dent in La Masia.

MORE INFORMATION

  • Barça can sign the Dembélé substitute
  • Braithwaite, an energy shot for Barcelona

Andoni Zubizarreta, now at the Olympique de Marseille, has chosen since 2010 to strengthen the club inside, with the line of succession of the players from youth to the top. But Bartomeu, upset by a whistle of the Camp Nou and drowned by the bad moment of the team expressed in the defeat of Anoeta - it was the first season of Luis Enrique -, decided to fire him in January 2014. In his credit are Alba's signings, Suárez, Rakitic and Ter Stegen, still on the team. Players who went to the Champions League final match in Berlin against Juve in 2015, in addition to Piqué, Busquets and Messi, which continues to result in the backbone of the team. Since then, in the last five seasons, Barcelona has undertaken 24 signings, of which only 10 remain in the Camp Nou (Umtiti, Semedo, Dembélé, Vidal, Arthur, Lenglet, Junior, De Jong, Griezmann and Neto).

After Zubizarreta came Robert Fernández, who preferred to limit himself to the first team because over time they put Pep Segura on top, who understood the model in a different way, more physical and direct than talented and cruiserie. A whole chaos that led the subsidiary to depersonalization and that eventually made the signings happen more than promotions.

Boateng, the antecedent

Until Bartomeu changed his mind again and dismissed Robert Fernández two courses ago, although he attracted players like De Jong and Arthur, signed by Abidal - the technical secretary today. "We want to change the way we work," he said. Months later, he showed Segura the way out, dissatisfied with his management. So Abidal and Ramon Planes, his second, were hired. "You have to make money," they were released upon arrival. And new return to the sports model.

This course has been sold to seven players of the first team (Malcom, Cillessen, André Gomes, Alcácer, Denis Suárez, Todibo and Carles Pérez) and assigned to four others (Coutinho, Emerson, Wagué and Aleñá), in addition to transferring others from the subsidiary that participated with Valverde, such as Cardona, Cucurella, Palencia and Abel Ruiz. What has resulted in an 18-player squad that has been forced to reinforce with Braithwaite when the then unpublished Boateng arrived in the past winter market.

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Source: elparis

All sports articles on 2020-02-21

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