The stage of departures

That all the heavyweights of the FC Barcelona sports area, except for President Joan Laporta, isolate themselves from the madding crowd, in the middle of the German Black Forest, almost a hundred kilometers from the most important city in the region, Stuttgart, and that they have also chosen a bungalow apart from the main residence occupied by the rest of the Blaugrana expedition, says a lot about the intentions of this triumvirate formed by the sports vice president, Rafa Yuste, the football director, Mateu Alemany, and the technical secretary, Ramon Planes, which since Wednesday have their nerve center in a remote place in southern Germany, on the border with Switzerland.

Obviously the presence of these three heavyweights in Germany is not trivial. They're here to start closing folders once and for all, with the victims a few meters away. The objective is to reduce the salary mass urgently to make room for Leo Messi in the squad.

The names that are on the table and that will be tried to find a solution imminently are on everyone's lips. Cases such as Samuel Umtiti, Miralem Pjanic, Martin Braithwaite and Neto Murara. The first two, Umtiti and Pjanic, are considered from the club as compulsory departures, to the point of considering the option of giving them the letter of freedom if an interesting offer does not arrive. The other two, Braithwaite and Neto, are considered more feasible options to find a solution by having more possible exits in the market. Between the four, the amount of chips that would be lowered would be about 55 million euros. Completely insufficient for the 200 that have to be reduced to adjust to the financial 'fair play' ratio required by LaLiga.

To implement this reduction, a significant salary reduction for the heavyweights of the team -Piqué, Alba, Sergi Roberto and Busquets must be addressed directly.-, in addition to seeking a solution in the Griezmann or Coutinho contracts. The former seem to have already begun to see reason, albeit reluctantly, while the latter already know that they have the exit doors open.

This is the extremely complicated puzzle that the people in charge of the sports area who have traveled to Germany will have to put together in the coming days. Yuste, Aleman and Planes, in collusion with Ronald Koeman, have to close most of these folders before the team starts the season on August 15. In Germany, and taking advantage of the tranquility of the deep Black Forest, these three men have to begin to put the thread in the needle to the future of FC Barcelona.