The ‘purge’ continues: Rakitic, Vidal and Umtiti must also leave

Ronald Koeman, after meeting this morning with the CEO, Oscar Grau, and with the technical secretary, Ramon Planes, has started the process of Contacts with discarded players to communicate that they are not within your project. The first to get the call it was striker Luis Suárez, but it has not been the only one. As AS has learned, at least three more players have been contacted by phone by the Dutch coach to inform them that they will not continue next season in the team and to encourage them to seek a contractual solution with the club and to find a new team. The players discarded by Koeman are Arturo Vidal, Ivan Rakitic and Samuel Umtiti.

Vidal (33 years old) has a contract until June 30, 2021, with a record close to nine million euros. Now he will have to negotiate with the club's lawyers the conditions of his departure and how he charges the year that remains to be settled.

In the same situation is Rakitic (32), with one more year of contract, but in his case the exit is already much more advanced: both parties had long been clear that their cycle at Barcelona had already ended and now it is a question of looking for a solution agreed by both parties and that benefits both. Today, Sevilla is presented as the ideal destination for the Croatian, but it remains to be seen if the Seville club agrees to pay a transfer for the player's departure.

By last, Umtiti (26) is a special case. His situation is simply “unsustainable”, according to what they point out from the club. And it is that the French central He has only played 30 of the last 120 Barcelona games in the last two years, that is, less than 30%, with the ‘handicap’ of having a token of 12 million euros per year and a contract until 2023. His problems in his left knee and his stubbornness in not going through the operating room have led him into this true cul-de-sac. Here the solution is very complicated: the central does not seem willing to forgive a single euro. In addition, his departure is very difficult because no club will approve a transfer without first doing a thorough review of his left knee.