Crisis in Barcelona! 'All stars up for sale' after Xavi departure

Suraj Radia

• 30 Jan 2024 12:13 GMT
• 3 min read

Barcelona are already planning for life after Xavi, with a rebuild of the club’s sporting project planned and ‘all the players’ up for sale as stars will reportedly be allowed to leave for offers above €100 million.

The Catalan side are seemingly at breaking point after manager Xavi announced he would be leaving the club at the end of the season following a poor run of form that left Barca out of the Copa del Rey and 11 points off leaders Girona in La Liga.

Barca’s long-running economic issues also continue to plague the club and they are in danger of not qualifying for the Champions League next season – something which would be disastrous for the finances.

Reports in Spain have claimed that president Joan Laporta has instructed sporting director Deco to negotiate all offers that arrive for players, as long as they are around €100m, with the club unable to make any new signings without selling first.

SPORT state that the aim is to raise at least €200m and that there will be ‘forced movement’ with no players considered untouchable, with Deco having a ‘free hand’ to make decisions ‘that may be painful’.

Which players could leave Barcelona?

The first ‘victims’ of Barca’s plan are said to be those who are out of contract such as Sergi Roberto and Marcos Alonso, while one or two centre-backs will leave ‘with complete certainty’.

Catalan outlet El Nacional goes into more detail about players, claiming that Ronald Araujo, who is wanted by Bayern Munich and Manchester United among other sides, is not considered essential anymore due to his poor form in recent weeks.

Alejandro Balde is also ‘not guaranteed’ to stay as he is ‘not like the player’ he was last season, having been ruled out for the rest of the campaign with injury, while Pedri’s fitness and consistency issues have left Barca ‘tired’ and the youngster could be sold as he has ‘not proven to be a world class star’.

Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Frenkie de Jong and Jules Kounde are all also all available for a ‘fair price’ as a number of Xavi’s favourites have lost their ‘untouchables’ status due to his impending departure.

However, two players who could still have a future at the Camp Nou are loanees Joao Felix and Joao Cancelo, who are described as ‘clear bets’ by SPORT providing the economic conditions to keep them around are ‘favourable’ for Barca.