Barcelona are still in the process of reorganising their sporting structure after the departure of Director of Football Mateu Alemany was announced, but more details of the reasons behind that exit are gradually finding their way into the public domain.
Alemany is reportedly off to Aston Villa this summer, with a large offer on the table from the Midlands club. Even shortly after his departure, various reasons for his decision were reported, including his disagreement over the return of Lionel Messi, and the renewals of Sergio Busquets and Sergi Roberto.
That has been confirmed by Joan Fontes, who says that Alemany also wanted to get rid of Jordi Alba last summer, putting together a deal with Inter without telling the player. Manager Xavi Hernandez seemingly inflamed that situation.
Que Deco acabe llegando para suplir a Alemany solo constataría que el Barça es un club de amigos. Deco es íntimo de Echevarría y su vínculo con Mendes es directo. La secretaría técnica es un cortijo de amigos. Con un interés inequívoco: El movimiento de jugadores y las comisiones pic.twitter.com/sR7QPzvGcY
— Dongcast (@JoanFontes) May 7, 2023
In January, youngster Pablo Torre nearly left on loan for Cadiz, but wanted to return to former club Racing Santander, another situation that Xavi commented on publicly while negotiations were ongoing.
On various occasions it appears that Xavi went above Alemany’s head in order to speak with President Joan Laporta on certain issues, not least Ousmane Dembele.
The Frenchman was asked to leave the club or sign a new deal by Alemany publicly, who wanted to sit him in the stands if he did not. Xavi welcomed him back in, frustrating Alemany’s strategy. The former Valencia man wanted to try the same thing with Ronald Araujo, but was not supported by Xavi.
Finally, Alemany did not see eye-to-eye with intermediary Alejandro Echevarria, who helped broker deals for Ferran Torres and Raphinha, and is very close to Jorge Mendes. Those two deals were not entirely approved by Alemany by the sounds of it, and with Deco set to come in as Sporting Director or Director of Football, the influence of Mendes and Echevarria in Barcelona’s transfer policy is only set to grow.
If that is the case, it is a concerning twist in the Laporta presidency. The charismatic lawyer has always taken a bombastic approach to his management of the club, but removing respected professionals in order to furnish the club with figures already taking commissions for transfers is not murky path to walk down. At a delicate time in the club’s history, the consequences are likely to be magnified.
