Barcelona begin counting the cost of Lionel Messi
Barcelona have made it a public and private desire to bring Lionel Messi back to the club, and reading between the lines, Xavi Hernández is more than willing to ‘accommodate’ the best player in Barcelona’s history. Mateu Alemany, not so much.
The great Argentine is poised to leave Paris Saint-Germain this summer, as the gory details of their divorce begin to surface. Seemingly Jorge Messi had explained a month ago that his son no longer wanted to continue with them, on account of the questionable, or total absence of the project.
His lack of faith in which he projected to the world from Saudi Arabia on Monday. PSG players were due in training on Monday, but Messi instead decided to head to Saudi Arabia with his family in order to fulfil his sponsorship agreement with the tourism board in the Gulf. Quite understandably, PSG sanctioned this with a suspension and a loss of wages for two weeks. The idea was to come down hard on the mollycoddled stars of the regime, but it almost looked soft in the face of such a crude show of disrespect.
At any rate, it brings Barcelona a little closer to Messi. Or does it? As Barcelona fans should have been celebrating their victory over Osasuna on Tuesday night, it was announced that Director of Football Alemany was leaving.
‘Padremany’ (a reference to how he ‘owned’ the transfer market) he was nicknamed by Barcelona fans last summer, decided to take a very large offer from Aston Villa if reports are to be believed. There have also been suggestions that beyond just money, one of the key factors in his decision to swap Barcelona for Birmingham was that he was no longer free to do his job without interference.
The renewals of Sergi Roberto and Sergio Busquets, followed by the insistence on making a deal for Messi work, in spite of the €180m deficit to their salary limit, the various already existing holes in their squad, and the ones they will be unable to address as a result of the Argentine became too much for Alemany.
And while the desire to bring Messi back is understandable, the former Valencia man is the first casualty. He will supposedly see out this transfer market, which softens the immediate hit, but doesn’t take away from the fact that they will lose their lynchpin in the market.
Alemany was credited as being a steely negotiator like no other, the one capable of twisting the numbers into place despite the apparent lack of room to manoeuver. At the current time of writing, Deco, an agent, is the favourite to take over. While he no doubt has an excellent knowledge of the Brazilian market, which he is employed to scout by Barcelona, he has no experience in any of the roles that he may come into. In fact, his main credential appears to be the fact that he has a good relationship with Laporta, having helped Barcelona to strike a deal for Raphinha last summer.
Returning to the former Valencia Sporting Director, Alemany had Barcelona moving in the right direction in the most desperate circumstances. It looked near impossible for Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski and Jules Koundé to come in, while Andreas Christensen, one who did look possible, has been one of the best signings in recent years at Barcelona. Perhaps it is no coincidence that three days before Alemany left, Xavi pointed out that Christensen was ‘his signing’.
Whomever comes in to replace Alemany will have a tall task by most evaluations. Messi’s comeback seems to trump all other needs for Barcelona this summer, at least in the eyes of Laporta. One of the promises Laporta made during his campaign was that he could keep Messi at the club. It has cost him the key figure whom he ran that campaign with.