Andoni Zubizarreta says, “We have a winning squad” – Part 1
The Spanish La Liga champions’ sporting director of Professional Football, Andoni Zubizarreta, and the Vice President, Josep Maria Bartomeu sat in a press conference and addressed while sitting in the Camp Nou on Wednesday. They spoke about different things regarding football and touched a wide range of footballing issues. As the summer transfer window has closed, these two key characters in the club’s organization were ready to speak to the reporters. The two important characters in Barcelona spoke to the press for an hour and a half on Wednesday. The topics that they spoke about were about the players that moved in and out of the club, the contract renewals of the coaches, the Mali international and the first team midfielder, Keita.
First of all he spoke about the “balanced” squad that the Spanish side has. He told the press that Barcelona always had a team that wanted to secure a win. He then touched the historical evidence and said that it has always been about winning and it still is about winning. As Barcelona are very much criticized about keeping only 19 players in the first team squad, the club’s sporting president said that it is not important that the team has only 19 players but “winning” is the first priority. He then told about the Barca B players that can easily make it to the first team and can cover the gaps that the first team needs. He said that Barcelona have a balanced squad and they keep on touring different countries to look for better players; however, at the moment they do not need new ones and if they do they will definitely go to the market and buy. He then made sure that they do not really need to bring players in the winter transfer window and attested the fact that they might not even buy any in January.
The sporting director highlighted about the reserve team of Barcelona, which is known as Barca B. He said that the team coaches are trying to develop their game and they are trying to bring them up to the mark by giving them the experience that they require. He said that at the moment the club wants them to play in the second division and try to bring them “up to the mark”.
He later added to the topic of players moving in and out of the club. He first made the signing of Javier Mascherano clear to everyone. He said that the club paid 20 million Euros to Liverpool and then they paid an additional 4 million Euros that came from reducing Mascherano’s salary.
Zubizarreta then talked about the players that went out on loan from the club. He said that it is good to send players out on loan because it helps the player in adapting to different environments. He said that this year Barcelona sent 5 players out on loan and all of them have an option of making the move permanent. Santos and Getafe have agreed to pay 100% for the players Keirrison and Victor Sanchez, Racking have agreed to pay 85% for Henrique and Sevilla have agreed to pay 90% for Martin Caceres. The former Arsenal man, Hleb has made a move back to the English Premier League and is out on loan to Birmingham City and they are willing to pay 75% of his salary.
The Sporting director then made it clear that they had the option of signing a new striker but they didn’t because David Villa, Pedro, Bojan, Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta were enough to complete the attack of the Spanish Champions.
Then they discussed about their new club sponsors “Herbalife”. He said that the sponsor tried its best to carry out different projects for the good of the club but the board has seen both positive and negative aspects of this. He said that Herbalife organized a tour in summer and the board thinks that it wasn’t “very” essential for the players. However, he added onto this and said that the club’s board is trying to look more into it and they are definitely going to try to bring the best out of everything.
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