Star summer signing Ilkay Gundogan has not been impressed with Barcelona since arriving at the club, according to reports in Catalonia.
After his outburst in the wake of defeat to Real Madrid in El Clasico, Gundogan has been on the covers of the sports papers in recent days, and raised eyebrows again after leaving a Barcelona photo op during the Ballon d’Or ceremony.
Gundogan is aware that joining Barcelona has catapulted him into a different stratosphere in terms of impact and popularity, but Sport say that internally, the standards are lower than at Manchester City.
🚨 Saturday was not the first time that Ilkay Gündogan felt disappointed with Barcelona. Just after he arrived, he and his wife felt 'abandoned' because the club didn't really help him with looking for housing and transportation. Gündogan conveyed the feelings to Barça, who… pic.twitter.com/KZVFSp3yKJ
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) October 31, 2023
When arriving at the club, Gundogan and his family, in this case including a baby, were not given the welcome they expected, as per Sport. The Gundogan family felt like they had little support when it came to logistics, formalities and even finding a house. This feeling of abandonment is something he voiced to the club.
Equally, the amount of time it took to register Gundogan was not a sign of smooth operation either. In general, away from the training ground, he found the club somewhat lacking.
The Blaugrana apologised to the veteran, but reportedly it is a common theme amongst new signings in Barcelona. Academy products also have to organise their own transport to the training ground, something that isn’t always the case at other clubs.
While it may seem somewhat trivial to many people, who obviously have to take care of these things themselves, Barcelona are competing with other elite clubs to sign players. Currently they are trading off their reputation more than their finances, and should players not recommend or speak negatively of the Barcelona experience, it will not aid their efforts to persuade top players that they should forego money to play for Barcelona.
