Barcelona need to get their squad affairs in order ahead of the next season, and the first step in this pursuit is renewing players whose contracts are expressing in the coming 18 months.
Young players like Ansu Fati, Pedri, and Ronald Araujo are the cornerstone of Xavi’s project, and unsurprisingly, the club has prioritised their renewals. Consequently, though, a certain Sergi Roberto has been left to wait in the queue for a while now.
While there have been reports in the recent past that Barcelona do not, in fact, want to renew the midfielder, recent news from Catalunya Radio suggests that the two parties have resumed talks about a potential renewal today.
The goal, as relayed by RAC1, is to ask Roberto to reduce his salary significantly and reach an agreement over a short-term contract. Xavi has given his opinion about the 30-year-old’s renewal, pushing the club to extend his contract.
When asked about it yet again ahead of the Levante clash, Xavi said:
“The club knows my opinion. We will see the negotiations of Roberto and the club, he is about to return and is training well. Next week, he may enter the squad list and then it depends on his recovery.”
Barcelona were linked to Ajax right-back Noussair Mazraoui for a while, and the transfer seemed inevitable. However, it is far from the case now as Bayern Munich seem to be in pole position for his signature.
The signing of Cesar Azpilicueta seems to be complicated as well now that several reports state that his automatic renewal has been triggered with Chelsea.
Should Dani Alves not be offered a contract extension, the club has nobody other than Sergino Dest at right-back. Even then, the American is quite injury prone, and often times Xavi has had to field Ronald Araujo in that role.
Thus, it is less surprising that Barcelona are ready to remould their opinion on Roberto’s renewal. Given Xavi’s preference to keep his right-back as an auxiliary midfielder, we might just see the La Masia redeem himself.
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