“There will be a revolution.” That’s how clear they manifest themselves within the club when asked about Xavi Hernández’s project for next season. Both the president, Joan Laporta, and the top executives, led by Mateu Alemany and Jordi Cruyff, Like Xavi Hernández himself, they agree on the diagnosis: Barça needs a major facelift if they want to compete for titles next season. And that facelift is inescapably due to a true revolution in the workforce.
In fact, as we anticipated in AS, the list of registrations and withdrawals are already fully defined by the sports management, in the absence of finally executing the levers that allow the economic viability of all operations. The club plans to carry out a minimum of eleven outings, some players already know this directly from the mouth of the coach himself and others will know it in the coming days, taking advantage of the trip to Australia to play a friendly this week.
Riqui Puig, Martin Bratithwaite, Samuel Umtiti, Óscar Mingueza, Luuk de Jong and Clement Lenglet already know that they are not counted on for next season. Others, such as Adama Traoré, Memphis Depay, Sergiño Dest and Frenkie de Jong have many options to end up leaving the club, while with Ousmane Dembélé and Dani Alves the daisy continues to end, with many more options than the Brazilian ending up staying. Besides, there are those on loan who return to the club: both Francisco Trincao and Álex Collado could do the preseason, while Pjanic will quickly find a new loan for him.
In total ten safe casualties, counting the Bosnian midfielder, to which some more could end up being added, depending on how the cases of Frenkie and Dembélé end up evolving.
additions
In the incorporation chapter, as we explained in the newspaper, there will be a minimum of seven registrations, which could be up to ten if Frenkie de Jong finally leaves. Three are already confirmed: Franck Kessié, Andreas Christensen and PabloTorre. The first two arrive for free, with the release letter after the end of their contract, while the third will do the preseason with the first team with the intention of continuing the entire season, since Xavi has high hopes for this young football promise Cantabrian.
From here on, the positions that need to be strengthened are on the two full-backs, along with one more central defender, two midfielders, a right winger and a center forward. Here the names are also already defined: César Azpilicueta (right back), Jules Koundé (central), Marcos Alonso (left back), Martín Zubimendi (defensive pivot), Carlos Soler (inside), Raphinha (right winger) and Robert Lewandowski (centre forward).
Laporta has promised Xavi that the club will have the financial muscle to bring everyone. If finally the president activates the three economic levers that he has in mind, together with a possible important exit that provides additional incomeit is clear that he could end up facing the 180 million investment needed to complete a team to aspire to all the titles next season.