The search of Txiki (2) : How it works

Today Catalan sports paper Sport gives a global analysis of the Barcelona transfer activity for next summer. In five episodes we will bring this story to you.

The paper explains how Barcelona is dealing with the whole transfer issue. After having identified the positions that should be strengthened, the technical staff choses three to five candidates for each of the positions. Since Barcelona wants to bring in 5 or 6 players in the summer, sports director Txiki Begiristain is now monitoring a group of 30 players. With some of these players, Barcelona came already to a verbal pre-agreement. Like last season, this will allow Barcelona to rapidly seal the deals in a few weeks time at the end of the season.

A rival sports director is quoted saying that no other club can offer that good conditions to a player as Barcelona: "A beautiful city, an attractive playing style, a good salary, a spectacular stadium, the chance to compete for every trophy and: sun and beach." This allows the club to block certain players, obliging other clubs to wait for Barcelona to move or not.

(you can read the first part of this story here, the third and fourth part will be published tomorrow, the last part on Saturday. The five episodes are: 1. Defence, 2. How it works, 3. Midfield, 4. Marital status, 5. Attack)