Since last September, he has been the new strong man of Joan Laporta’s Barça. Deco, a former midfielder for the Catalan club, is in charge of strengthening the team and ensuring that everything goes well. And the least we can say is that the former Portuguese international has his work cut out for him. In addition to having to bring in new faces to revive a somewhat struggling team, he must also find a new coach to take over from Xavi. All this in a very tense financial context.
In an interview given to the show Tot Costa of Catalunya Radio, Deco returned to a lot of current topics linked to the club. Starting with Xavi. “My relationship with Xavi is very good. I would like it to continue until June. I wanted him to stay even longer and for us to fight together for this project. But he has his reasons, his personal affairs. We accept it »launched the Portuguese, who then continued on the subject of Xavi’s successor: “we are not looking. The season is not over. There is still a lot of time and things to do before looking for the coach. We haven’t made any decisions yet. We analyze profiles ». As a reminder, the Spanish press has already announced several coaches as potential targets for the reigning Spanish champion, such as Hansi Flick, Michel, Imanol Alguacil and Julian Nagelsmann.
He counts on De Jong
“We must first know what we can have as a project, and what we can do. We also need to know which players we are going to count on. There aren’t that many top trainers on the market. Most are under contract, there are not many people available. Barça has a style that everyone knows. But there is no robot portrait of the ideal coach. Nationality does not count, what counts is quality, ambition…”, concluded Deco, who also confided that if Xavi were to change his decision, he would of course be kept. On the transfer window, he was also quite talkative: “the idea is not to sell anyone. On the contrary, the goal is to strengthen oneself. I count on everyone. Frenkie (De Jong), Pedri, Araujo, Gavi… They are players of the present and the future. They must be there for more years. Then there is an important basis to be competitive: Raphinha, Ferran Torres… I would not sell anyone”.
He also returned in more depth to the De Jong case, which is causing a lot of talk in Catalonia at the moment. Lately, the press has regularly announced his departure, which caused a sensational media outing from the usually calm player: “I’m a little angry at what the press is writing. Things that come out are not true. Aren’t you ashamed of what you publish? (…) I don’t understand why they say things that are lies. This irritates me.” And we know, some Barça leaders wanted to sell him in the past to replenish the coffers. Deco logically came to the player’s aid: “we are not going to talk about conversations with his agents. He’s human, and he can get upset if something is said that doesn’t correspond to reality. I think he’s happy. It’s good that he wants to win. We want players who want to win here, not just players who just want to play here. We hope it will be there for many years”. The message got through.
