For now there will be no photos of Leo Messi, Luis Suárez and Jordi Alba in swimsuits aboard a yacht touring the coasts of Ibiza to enjoy the holidays. These images that were being repeated systematically every summer – even this year during the free week that Quique Setién gave them after finishing LaLiga – will hardly be repeated at least in the short term.
Aware that the situation advises lowering the social agenda after the humiliation suffered in Lisbon, the three players They have chosen to take refuge together in a mountain town in the Catalan Pyrenees, in order to go as unnoticed as possible and thus avoid the media noise, as well as to be very attentive to the events that are taking place these days in Can Barça and that could directly affect some of them.
So much Jordi Alba (31), as especially Luis Suarez (33), They are in all pools as possible sacrifices among the sacred cows of the squad. The Uruguayan striker, despite still having a clause that opens the doors to an automatic renewal if next season he plays a certain number of games, has offers to play in the United States and Qatar. Offers that the club today is willing to assess very seriously if the interested club is serious and pays a reasonable amount for their transfer. And it is that in the club the renewal in attack is considered essential, and apart from the arrival of Trincao and the promotion to the first team of Ansu Fati, the signing of Argentine Lautaro Martínez is considered necessary.
The departure of Alba, who has a contract until 2024, ventures more difficult. The left-back square is not covered in his absence: Junior Firpo's performance has been disappointing at all levels. Hence, if the international is forced to leave, it would have to be with the full guarantees of a very high-level reinforcement, and the market is not exactly right now for great joys. As AS advanced, in principle his departure is not among the priorities of the remodeling that the club will undertake in the coming weeks.