Andoni Zubizarreta says, “We have a winning squad” - Part 2
Barcelona’s current coach Josep “Pep” Guardiola is a former Barcelona player. He is currently coaching the Spanish La Liga Champions and he is the same coach who was able to help the team win 6 titles in the same season. That season was a “record breaking” season as Barcelona were able to grab themselves 6 trophies and won all the competitions that they entered. Pep Guardiola managed to win the league last season as well and the board is very impressed by his tactics. Currently, the Spaniard has signed a year’s contract with the club. However, when the press asked whether he is going to get an extension, the question was turned down as the sporting president said that it was “too soon” to talk about such a thing. He said that the coach knows that he has an open option of signing for another season but it is all up to him, of course.
The question about Cesc Fabregas was raised again and this time the club’s management made the whole aspect clear for everyone. He said that Barcelona tried their best to sign the Spanish number 10 but they did not really get close to making a deal because Arsenal never wanted to sell their captain. He said that the final offer that the club made was 40 million Euros and the only reason why Barcelona could not come to common ground with Arsenal was because the English club did not even want to negotiate. He said that the club respected their position and never tried to grab the player once the offer was turned down.
He said:
“We would have liked to have signed him but we weren’t able to negotiate. It wasn’t a disappointment – it was simply impossible”.
He further added onto this by saying that they are still in contact with Arsenal since they still want to sign Fabregas and they want it to happen as soon as the next summer transfer window opens.
The talks continued and he told the press that there is going to be a 5% deduction in the salaries of all the staff members and the squad as well. Questions were raised about this and in reply all he said was that he wanted to make a “competitive team.” He said that the total salaries of the squad have gone down by 5% because he thought that the squad was not trying to compete and even though the board did not want to come to this, they later decided to reduce salaries to make the squad better.
He then told the press about his concerns with the Brazilian defender, Daniel Alves. There were rumours surrounding the right back as he was “about to” leave the club since Barcelona were in debt and were waiting for a loan from the bank because of which they were not able to pay the players and the staff for a month. Daniel Alves did not get his pay and he did not want to stay in the club because of the “wage” problems that he was suffering from. The club’s sporting director said that he is still trying his level best to sign a deal with him and he is definitely going to give him an extension as the team needs him and he is definitely the best defender in the Spanish La Liga. He said that he has given a lot to us and now its time to pay him back.
Talking about Ibrahimovic, he said that it was all disappointing how things went wrong all of a sudden. He told the press that Guardiola never addressed any player individually and always talked to the team and how Ibra took all of this was simply wrong. He said that currently he is a Milan player and out on loan to the Italian club. He said that his contract also has the option of making a move out of the club and Milan is currently paying all of his wages. Barcelona are going to save 120 million Euros because of him and Bojan is the player who has taken Ibrahimovic’s number 9 jersey.
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