Xavi Hernández kicked off the 2022-23 preseason yesterday with 23 players –14 from the first team and 9 from the reserve team–, which means few new features and many pending duties. With the exception of Franck Kessié, a new signing who will join tomorrow, Andreas Christensen who will be presented on Thursday and Pablo Torre, a footballer with a subsidiary record who trained for the first time with the first team yesterday, this Barça is still the same as the one who said goodbye on May 22 at the Camp Nou losing against Villarreal (0-2). Of the current squad, with 31 players with a valid contract, the one who will play the first official commitment on August 13 at 9:00 p.m. against Rayo Vallecano should, in principle, go an abyss.
Neither Riqui Puig nor Neto should follow, for example. Xavi had given them permission not to train and extend their vacation for another week while they look for a way out, but both went to the sports city. This permission is a measure of pressure that the player can legally accept or not, since no club can exclude its players from training and competition routines while they have a contract. This is specified in Royal Decree 1006/1985, which regulates the special employment relationship of professional athletes.
In addition, as ruled by the Supreme Court in 2010, as long as the players have a valid contract, they are also entitled to a license to compete. The alternative would be to fire the players and assume that Barça will have to pay the salary corresponding to the remaining years of their contract. “If we do things right, we will be able to sign and release the players who do not count for the coach, respecting their condition as Barça players”, said the president Joan Laporta, within the framework of the cycle of talks ‘Stellar Moments’, organized by the The New Barcelona Post at the SEAT House.
Riqui Puig and Neto attended but Mingueza, Wague, Umtiti, Lenglet and Rey Manaj did decide to accept the coach’s permission and did not show up. Lenglet points to Tottenham, a team to which he would leave on loan. Umtiti has an offer from Rennes. And Mingueza would have caught the attention of Monza, a recently promoted team in Serie A. They also showed up to train two more players that Xavi does not have. These are Trincão and Pjanic, who returned to the sports city after having completed their assignments at Wolverhampton and Turkish Besiktas, respectively. Trincão is solving his future with Sporting de Portugal while Pjanic, who did not have to join until next week because he played in the Nations League, decided to bring his vacation forward.
Within the list of returning players on loan, Xavi wants to see winger Àlex Collado and goalkeeper Iñaki Peña in action after their good performances in Granada and Turkey. The two homegrown players were among the first to arrive at the sports city followed by Ansu Fati. Although he was summoned by Luis Enrique to play the Nations League with Spain, Fati did not play a minute and wanted to be under the orders of his coach from the first day.
Pedri also attended, who finished the course injured and has been exercising on his own for days. Ter Stegen, Dest, Piqué, Nico, Sergi Roberto and Aubameyang completed the session. In addition to those mentioned from the first team and Pablo Torre at the start of the season, there are also eight Barça Atlètic players: Tenas, Balde, Abde, Mika Mármol, Aranda, Chadi Riad, Ilias Akhomach and Marc Casadó.
Next Monday another new signing will be incorporated, the Danish Andreas Christensen, as well as the rest of the internationals. Some with unresolved issues. This is the case of Gavi, whose renewal is still pending, or those of Frenkie de Jong and Memphis, whose future is still unknown.
There is also Braithwaite, who must find a way out. Xavi does have Busquets, Alba, Eric Garcia and Ferran Torres, while in the offices they work to clarify Dembélé’s future and activate the economic lever by selling 15% of the television rights that allow closing the arrivals of Lewandowski, Raphinha, Koundé, Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso.
