The time of the fat cows in the Blaugrana locker room is definitely over. Joan Laporta is determined to definitely put an end to the skyrocketing and stratospheric salaries granted by Josep Maria Bartomeu, with the unsuccessful goal of gaining the complicity of the footballers at the stroke of a checkbook. This disproportionate waste has left the dubious ‘honor’ of being the most expensive squad in the world, costing €560 million in chips. This exorbitant figure has been penalized by financial ‘fair play’ and a negative balance of 144 million, which leaves the current leaders practically in a ‘de facto’ blockadeif they do not urgently enter liquidity.
To put a stop to this bleeding – the famous “disastrous legacy” that the Blaugrana president speaks of – the club is willing to accept and abide by drastic and traumatic decisions. To begin with, a new salary table for all those signings and players who renew. The main mantra is that A salary limit has been imposed that will never be exceeded: 10 million clean euros. In fact, players like Mohamed Salah and Antonio Rüdiger have been the first victims of this stripsince they were discarded due to their high claims: the striker asked for a clean 17 million per season, while the defender claimed a clean 12 million.
Robert Lewandowski, to give an example, has agreed to enter within the parameters of the club and is willing to collect a clean 9 million per course on a three-year contract. The Polish striker would have to be the highest paid player in the squad according to the current scale, but unfortunately for the Blaugrana interests it will not be like that.
And it is that players like Gerard Piqué, Sergio Busquets or Frenkie de Jong will exceed, and by far, the 10 million clean next season. Hence, a solution is being proposed to put an end to this situation, with the request for a new salary reduction to some players, in some cases of up to 50%. In addition, in the case of the Catalan center-back there is objective concern about his physical condition: he has a chronic adductor injury that could disable him from playing regularly next year.
The new salary table aims to reduce the current salary mass that the club supports by around 160 million. All the players who have been signed since Laporta’s arrival, together with those who have renewed, have already accepted the new order. We are talking about Ansu Fati, Pedri, Araújo, Nico, Ferran Torres, Memphis, Eric Garcia, Aubameyang and Alves, among others. Soon Sergi Roberto and Gavi will also join.
The captains, especially Gerard Piqué as we have already mentioned, and Frenkie de Jong, who has an ascending contract that brings him an amount close to 13 million clean next season, are in the club’s sights, which has a great challenge get all the players to enter the new table.
A table that establishes a range of six to eight million for the players with the most weight in the team, between four and five for the so-called middle class -here belongs the thickness of the template- and between two and three for the youngest and those with a long-term run at the club.
Players like Ansu Fati and Pedri right now would already be in the middle class and they could end his contract as a heavyweight, depending on his progression. The captains would also be in this last group, so the ideal bar would be 8 million clean, with the exception of Sergi Roberto, who will receive 3 million.
We will see what the club’s room for maneuver is and the measures it takes to achieve the long-awaited financial ‘fair play’, which will allow the club to start signing without taking out the calculator. What is clear is that the era of fat cows for soccer players is over and those who stay will have to tighten their belts and demonstrate their commitment to the entity that has ‘fattened’ them so much in recent years.