BARCELONA – Barcelona closed the sports season and immediately opened the steps to start planning the new season. Two days after Pep Guardiola, from Manchester, took for granted the signing of Sergio Agüero by the Barça club, President Joan Laporta, accompanied by the sports director Mateu Alemany, met at the club’s offices with Jan Kabalt, a specialized Dutch lawyer in sports law and who works in the consultancy of Georginio Wijnaldum, whose signing for Barça would be treated immediately.
The Dutch midfielder, who played 236 games for Liverpool in the last five seasons, is a midfielder with a marked physical character and who can play both in backward positions and on the inside, with good deployment and arrival from the second row. His possible incorporation would mark the figure of Miralem Pjanic, who arrived from Juventus in August 2020, whose performance during the course has been devastating and to whom Barça, even more so if Koeman’s continuity were confirmed, would seek a way out.
Wijnaldum, 30, has finished his contract with Liverpool this season and months ago he was linked to Barcelona, on the direct advice of Ronald Koeman and together with his compatriot Memphis Depay, whose incorporation is also on the table.
Precisely the Barça coach is expected this afternoon at the Camp Nou offices to hold a meeting with Laporta in which his future will have to be decided. Although his permanence on the bench has been highly questioned in recent weeks, the possible signing of Wijnaldum would invite us to think that the president would be in charge of respecting his contract.
During the last meeting between the president and the coach in a restaurant in Barcelona, Laporta asked Koeman for a comprehensive report on the squad, a specific football plan and also questioned him about the lack of prominence of some footballers during the season. With all these data in hand and after the internal consultations that the president has held in recent days with his closest associates, he will make a final decision.
The Dutch coach, who said goodbye to the squad at a lunch on Sunday during which he told his players that he hoped to see them again “in July”, maintains his intention to fulfill the season he has signed and is ready to lead the change of cycle proclaimed by the president, with a possible and profound remodeling of the workforce.
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