Meeting between Laporta and Koeman to design the future
The duo have to discuss what the club want in the transfer market
Decisive weeks are coming for Barca. New president Joan Laporta has taken possession of the club and will get to work quickly. One of the first meetings he has arranged is with Ronald Koeman, to speak about the club’s planning. The analysis will be fairly basic but it is aiming to construct a second revolution. which the squad needs, from both an economic and sporting stand point.
Ronald Koeman and Joan Laporta know each other and had first contact at the club’s offices and then in Paris ahead of the PSG clash. But they have to sit down and analyse things properly. The coach has a report already from the current sporting staff about which positions should be reinforced and a possible list of outs to reduce the wage bill and boost the coffers.
The new president will make no firm decisions until the accounts are audited and there is a new football sports structure in place. Laporta wants to analyse the contracts, as well as the payments pending for a lot of players signed in recent seasons. He also wants to check, first hand, the state of the club’s accounts. He and his board know they will have to be imaginative to reinforce the team given the black hole there currently is in the bank accounts.
Laporta is also waiting to seal his new sporting structure. Mate Alemany will be the head of football and have a big weighting. He will be accompanied by Jordi Cruyff as sporting director, as soon as possible, but his exit from China is not easy.
Koeman has spoken with Laporta and the other presidential candidates in January to discus the centre-back position. This year Barca have a team lit up by various youngsters who are coming good. The team needs a few touches up here and there to add the quality to create a winning Barca. One or two centre backs and a top level striker. It’s all up to economics. Haaland is the big dream but Barca need to sell very well to have a chance.
The idea is to bet on the youth team and Koeman, after his recent use of Ilaix, is also looking at others, including left back Alex Balde.
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