Barcelona’s American tour has suffered several setbacks. Beyond the gastroenteritis that affected 15 team players and for which the match against Juventus in San Francisco ended up being canceled or the delay of Arsenal in Los Angeles, this Tuesday the team suffered a new unforeseen event to reach Las Vegas,
The Barcelona expedition landed four and a half hours behind schedule due to two setbacks. In the first place, the plane that had to transport the board of directors, soccer players and coaching staff arrived late from Canada. Then a sandstorm in Las Vegas caused a further two-hour delay.
The team could not train at Allegiant Stadium nor could they attend to the media. After 10 p.m. he went to the Palms Hotel, his house in Las Vegas. Today they will train first thing in the morning in a session behind closed doors before the game that takes place at 4 in the morning. Then they will return to Barcelona.
Dembélé, aware that he is the center of attention, was one of the last to get off the bus. He did it in the footsteps of Kessié. Next to him also came down Koundé. During the flight it was Marcos Alonso who sat next to him.
Several managers and also the coach wanted to talk with the Frenchman, who has already told the club his desire to go to PSG. “Look Neymar. He regretted leaving,” they told him. Dembélé did not respond. The decision is made. In fact, the player’s agents enforced a requirement that appears in the Frenchman’s contract, which he decided to renew downward until 2024.
Said requirement indicates that if the footballer let the Barcelona club know his willingness to leave before July 31, Barça undertook to transfer him for 50 million regardless of what was stipulated in his termination clause. Of those 50 million, 25 will be for Barcelona and 25 for Dembélé and his agents. The Barcelona leadership, tired of the episodes that Dembélé and his agent have starred in in the last two years, have chosen to negotiate and hope to achieve something more than those 25 million that would correspond to them. “The starting price is 50 million,” say club sources.
Barcelona is also waiting to see what comes in to calculate the fair play it will have to sign new signings. It should be remembered that since June 28 and at the initiative of Mateu Alemany with LaLiga, clubs can use 50% of what they will save in salaries (not long ago it was 25%) to make new hires. This percentage goes up to 60% if the player accounts for more than 5% of the Sports Squad Cost. Beyond the right back and a midfielder, Xavi is also asking for a striker. In this sense, there is a consensus in the club to rule out João Félix and Yannick Carrasco.
