Barcelona starts preseason without Ilaix Moriba

BARCELONA – Barcelona summoned a total of 20 footballers to start the preseason that will begin this Saturday with the PCR tests and seriological tests before undergoing the medical and physical tests that will precede the first training session on Monday, in the that they will not be able to take part normally Marc-André ter Stegen, Ousmane Dembéland, Ansu Fati Y Philippe Coutinho due to his injuries.

The club called eleven players from the first team (Ter Stegen, Net, Sergiño Dest, Gerard piquand, Miralem Pjanic, Dembélé, Riqui Puig, Coutinho, Sergi Roberto, Ansu Fati and Samuel Umtiti) and another nine from the subsidiary (Arnau Tenas, Iñaki Peña, Monchu, Ilias, Gavi, Comas, Ramos Mingo, Nico and Collado), being the absence of Ilaix Moriba the most prominent note.

The youth squad midfielder, who participated in 18 games with the first team last year, has been relieved of the subsidiary in a club decision, taking into account the difficulties that exist with the renewal of his contract, which ends in 2022 and whose negotiations with his Agents do not advance according to the conditions that Barcelona wants to implement. Ilaix, who was scheduled to be in first team dynamics since this preseason and who was even going to have a number, will not join the orders of Ronald Koeman until his case is solved.

Considered one of the soccer players with the greatest prospects in the club and directly sponsored by Koeman, solving the continuity of Ilaix was one of the tasks most to be taken into account by the new executives of Laporta, but the new agency of representation of the soccer player has been presented with economic demands that are considered unaffordable at Barça, especially taking into account the current crisis scenario in which players are being asked to make an effort in the form of lowering salaries.

WITHOUT EXCEPTIONS

Apart from the Ilaix case, which Koeman learned from the president himself and Mateu Alemany, the preseason will begin with the presence of players who do not enter into the club’s plans, since it was not possible in the previous weeks to find a way out to they.

This is the case of Samuel Umtiti and Miralem Pjanic, mainly, the two footballers that Barcelona has already formally invited to find an immediate exit. And although they will not be taken into account, in principle, they will work normally under the coach’s orders since the club does not want to remove them from the squad and enter into a conflict that is considered unnecessary.

It is the same case of Neto or Coutinho, who also have their permanence very in the air, although the goalkeeper is different in that Ronald Koeman does not clearly contemplate his departure if an experienced goalkeeper does not arrive to cover the back of Ter Stegen and, In addition, the season begins as the injured German goalkeeper is not expected until the end of September in the best of scenarios.

In this way, on Monday, 16 players will start training normally under Koeman, who will not be able to work with the injured at the moment and is waiting for the players who have taken part in the Eurocup and America’s Cup to gradually join, with the exception from Mingueza, Eric Garcia Y Pedri that have been summoned for the Olympic Games.