Barcelona dismiss 23-year employee loved by players to bring in regime-friendly alternative

Barcelona President Joan Laporta has been accused of virulent cronyism in his second spell in charge of the entity, and his latest move will not ease those fears.

According to Sport, Barcelona have decided to dismiss team manager Montserrat Vinardell after 23 years at the club. Described as ‘the players’ right-hand’, Vinardell was in charge of logistics and problem solving for the squad, sorting out day-to-day problems for the players, staff and their surrounding people.

Well-loved by the dressing room, she has a good relationship with the staff too, but will be relieved of her duties, despite nobody in the first-team or their family complaining about Vinardell. The reason is that the board want to bring in somebody from their close circle to deal with the players’ issues.

This follows on from a long list of moves where Laporta and his board have made changes to bring in people not necessarily with better experience, but links to themselves. Laporta’s ex-brother-in-law, Alejandro Echevarria, continues to play a key role in club decisions despite not holding a position, while Barcelona also replaced the head of security without cause for complaint. Meanwhile the likes of Sergi Barjuan, Javier Saviola, Deco, Juliano Belletti and Rafael Marquez have all taken on roles in the football department without the relevant experience of their predecessors.