At least for now, the winter market, especially Aubameyang and Adama (Daniel Alves and Ferran are different cases), have rehabilitated Mateu Alemany. The Barça football director, one of Joan Laporta’s strategic signings for his organization chart, He had had a very gray first few months at the Barça club. In the summer, he had limited himself to confirming the signings that the club had closed since the Bartomeu stage: Eric Garcia, Depay and Agüero. In addition, he had rushed to sell Emerson to Tottenham to put some money (14 million) in the club’s coffers. And a little more. The economic straits imposed by the club’s previous CEO, Ferran Reverter, and the Messi affair had given him little room for manoeuvre. Mateu was also unsuccessful in his negotiation with Atlético Madrid to exchange Griezmann with Joao Félix. The day before the market closed, Gil Marín backed down. The solution was to close the signing of Luuk de Jong on the afternoon of August 31. With Luuk, by the way, he also had to back down. He called Monchi to return him in January or send him to Cádiz and the Dutchman’s goals made him lose his mind.
Mateu Alemany was also not fine in January in the management of the Dembélé case. His statements, somewhat extemporaneous and authoritarian (“It seems obvious to us that the player does not want to continue at Barcelona and is not committed to Barça’s future project. In this scenario, he and his agents have been told that he must leave immediately, because we want committed players” ), about French, and the decision to exclude him from the call in a match of the importance of the round of 16 of the Cup in San Mamés, when Barça had not yet incorporated Aubameyang and Adama, were revealed to be erroneous. Barça threw a competition and, in addition, Alemany, put Xavi in the garlic. “The sporting consequence of all this, valued by the coaches and our coach, is that we don’t want to have uncommitted players with us who don’t want to be at Barça.” Two weeks later, Barça had rectified and Dembélé scored a goal and two assists in 25 minutes.
But Alemany seems to have taken flight with Aubameyang and Adama. The Gabonese striker, who signed until 2025, came from months of ostracism at Arsenal and conflict with Mikel Arteta. Alemany, with the help of Eugenio Botas, with whom he maintains a good relationship since he was Marcelino’s representative, managed to get him to leave North London for free and the impact of ‘Auba’ has been tremendous: five goals in six games. Adama has been another very pleasant surprise. As if he had never left La Masia, he has fit like a glove and has provided four assists in six games, in addition to showing maturity to make good decisions in almost all his actions. Barça also got his free transfer. Adama resigned from Tottenham and Alemany managed to agree with Jorge Mendesone of the parents of the operation, that the purchase option for the L’Hospitalet player be the same as the one that Wolverhampton signed for Trincao…, also a Jorge Mendes player.
Alves and Ferran Torres are different cases. The Brazilian is a signing forged in the side’s personal relationship with Joan Laporta and Xavi. The president did not see it clearly for a while, but it was the coach himself who took the step, convinced that Alves could give the team character and competitiveness; and joy to the locker room, which was no small thing in a team depressed by the history of recent years. Ferran is a strategic club signing in which Alemany has played its part. His good relationship with the striker’s agent, who is the same as Pedri, helped, but it is still a very powerful investment (55 million plus 10 in variables). More than just a signing of a soccer director, he is from the club. Ferran hasn’t started well in front of goal, but everything he does on the pitch makes sense. His physical and technical condition, his movements, and his way of reading football allow us to predict good things if he finishes calming down in front of goal.
The winter market has rehabilitated the name of Mateu, a figure who enjoys a great reputation in Spanish football for his work in Mallorca and Valencia, and who in Barcelona has found one of the greatest challenges of a career that was about to turn towards the institutional when it was postulated as an alternative to Villar in the FEF. That story didn’t pan out. At Barça, he tries to straighten the course of the club and confirm that he maintains a privileged vision of the business.