Joan Laporta is very disappointed with Barcelona’s recent results, especially with the feelings that they will leave this season, with a completely unified project in the elite, the goal was to show that they are a formidable team again, that can compete for the Champions League. But the truth is that they are still very irregular, and play a very fluid and unclear game.
Xavi is very conservative, and usually all victories come with a minimum of goals and suffering.
Moreover, they have been beaten in recent matches, such as against Real Madrid and Shakhtar Donetsk. They need to respond as quickly as possible, because they are four points behind Girona, the surprise leaders in La Liga, and are yet to secure a place in the last 16 of the Champions League. There are players who do not live up to expectations.
Above all, in attack, which has become a major headache at Camp Nou, seeing the complexities that penetrate rivals’ networks. Here are the president’s first two footballers who could be released.
The first is Raphinha, who, far from taking a step forward this season, has taken a step back. At the moment, he is no longer even a starter, having been overtaken in the rotation by Joao Felix and the promising Lamine Yamal.
Although many people expected the Brazil international to take advantage of the sale of Ousmane Dembélé to Paris Saint-Germain to establish himself in Barcelona’s starting lineup and become one of the key figures, the reality was very different.
He is not meeting expectations, and Laporta has run out of patience. Because he is still far from justifying the investment they made to pry him away from Leeds United just over a year ago.
So they made the decision to put him on the transfer list, thus trying to get around €60 million with his departure.
Besides Rafinha, Laporta also mentioned Ferran Torres. He started strong this year, and it looked like it was the year he wanted, but his performances have been declining, and now he is contributing absolutely nothing at Barcelona.
Therefore, they also intend to release him, and recover part of the cost of signing him from Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.