Barcelona are on the hunt for a new Director of Football after it was announced that Mateu Alemany would be leaving the club in the summer.
However Alemany will continue with the club until the 30th of June and will be available for Barcelona for the rest of the transfer window on an informal basis. The Blaugrana are facing one of their trickiest transfer windows in history and the timing could scarcely be worse.
As his official departure date looms less than two months away, MD have outlined a number of issues that are to be addressed by Barcelona and Alemany before he leaves.
Top of that list is registering the already agreed contracts for Ronald Araujo, Marcos Alonso and Gavi with La Liga. So far none have been as a result of the club exceeding their salary limit.
Those are merely the first of a number of renewals that need to be sealed and signed though. Inaki Pena, Alejandro Balde, Lamine Yamal and Ousmane Dembele are all in line for new contracts too.
In order to pull all of their operations off this summer, Barcelona to make sales and fast. Before the first of June, the Blaugrana have set a target of €100m to be raised in sales, with Ansu Fati, Raphinha and Ferran Torres all linked with an exit.
It appears as if Inigo Martinez will arrive, but the pivot position is another area that needs attention. If Sergio Busquets does renew his deal, then they can perhaps push the matter down the line for a further year, but otherwise will need to work out a replacement. Manchester City‘s Ilkay Gundogan is the prime target.
Perhaps the trickiest of Alemany’s tasks is improving the right-back slot. There are no obvious and cheap alternatives at the position, with Juan Foyth seemingly out of financial reach. Joao Cancelo or Thomas Meunier might be options mostly for the fact that both are likely to be on the cheaper end of the scale, with the Portuguese potentially available on loan.
The biggest task of all, and seemingly one of the reasons Alemany decided to depart is Lionel Messi. The Argentine will not return to Paris Saint-Germain this summer and is wanted for a sensational return by President Joan Laporta. Equally, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Yannick Carrasco and Vitor Roque have been mentioned as reinforcements for the frontline, but they would be relying on more Mateu magic in order to make those deals financially viable.
