Catalan sports paper Sport claims that Barcelona sports director Txiki Begiristain has already met eight times over the last weeks with Iván Corretja, the agent of Barcelona attacking midfielder and Spanish international Xavi (28), but that a deal is nevertheless not anywhere near at this stage.
The Catalan midfielder wants a pay rise and although Xavi would have accepted that he won't earn as much as team-mates like Messi, Eto'o or Henry but by demanding 7 million euro plus incentives a year he would like to be close behind those players. Both parties nevertheless agree that the extension will be for another four years, until 2014.
Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that Corretja has met only twice with Barcelona officials and that Xavi wants to be at the second level of Barcelona earners, behind Messi. While Xavi has at least one big offer from a European top club, the positions of the two parties wouldn't be getting nearer to each other.
The paper claims that Barcelona president Joan Laporta has talked with Xavi last Friday to deny the rumour that Barcelona would have considered to sell the player last summer in order to buy Arsenal midfielder Cesc (read more here).
Asked about the renewal negotiations, Laporta said this weekend to journalists that the club wants the player to continue: "We would like him to continue playing for us for many years. He's one of our captains and a key player for the team. He's a homegrown player and we try to make him feel as comfortable as possible. We appreciate Xavi a lot. I have a special relationship with him because it's a player that I like a lot. I have said that since my first season at the club. I remember the great season he had in 2003-2004 and he kept his level since then."
Read more:
Arsenal, Liverpool and Juventus monitor Xavi talks
Barcelona makes official statement on Xavi
Xavi renewal talks advancing slowly
Monday 3 November 2008
Xavi wants to climb up in Barcelona salary rank
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6 comments:
hes right ! he should get more
Pay him what he wants for crying out loud! I will never forgive Txiki and Laporta if they fuck this up.
I cant believe I am about to say this.. but 7 million + is a little steep for xavi... I mean he is my fav player and all and I think one of the best in the world at his position but he simply doesnt have the profile of a 7 million dollar player, cant make tonnes of money off of endorsements of him.. he is doomed to be forever underapreciated...that sucks but its kinda true.. 5-6 million max.. which is still a considerable pay raise from what he earns now but 7 mil is a bit too much for a player who is as integral to the team as he is unsexy.. from a branding perspective.. his appeal is to the barca loyalists and the catalan nation and as much as we would kick and scream the club doesnt need to keep xavi and puyol to keep this fan base.
In a perfect world I'd pay him 7 million if only as a reward for his consistency his loyalty and all around unsung excellence.. but this isnt a perfect world
This is exactly why we have tiki. and laporta.. these guys are lawyers and politicians who are supposed to get this kind of negotiation done ...but time and time again they miss opportunities. The time to give xavi a raise was immediately after the euros... within a week... You bring him home.. throw a parade in their honor.. and announce publically that you are giving him and iniesta a raise ...then the club has the leverage and can dictate terms because the player would look bad for saying no at that point, when it appears that the club is being generous...
thats just my idea but its the kind of strategic thinking that I think is lacking at this club.. and its why ALL our negotiations seem to go ON AND ON AND ON and eventually unsettle the player and upset everyone involved
Marc...Now thats an impressive comment u made.
I agree with Marc that 7 million + incentives is way too much for Xavi. With the situation as it is I wouldn't mind him making the 5 million + until he's 34, but who knows if that deal is still on the table.
I think you're over-simplifying the situation with Txiki and Laporta though. Nobody knew Xavi was going to be on the form of his life at the start of this season. Privately I'm sure Laporta and Txiki were regretting not signing Xavi to a deal that's more in line with his pre-Euro 2008 profile. That's probably why they held off on offering him the full 5 million + packet or whatever the original number might have been. They certainly made a bad calculation, but you can't say they don't know what they're doing.
It was their fiscal responsibility, renegotiating all the player contracts that got us out of the mess we were in before the Rijkaard era. In hindsight they should have offered Xavi the original tier 2 packet but what if Xavi had started the season slowly, we'd be bemoaning the fact that we signed Xavi to a 6 year deal that pays him too much.
The same goes with Busquets. They probably thought they could have saved a little more money for the club by waiting. Busquets didn't cooperate, and ended up becoming a solid rotation player. C'est la vie. That's the way things go sometimes. What if Busquets wasn't good enough for the first team and we signed him for 10k/week? Doesn't seem like a ton of money but it could be the difference between keeping a couple of young stars or not. It didn't work out for them but in the end it's better to overpay for a good player than to overpay for a bad player. That's the reasoning behind waiting too long sometimes.
If they keep this up, then we can start questioning their long term vision.
I know the comments we make here dont count for much...however i think a club like Barca needs to treat its players especially those special ones (Messi, Eto'o, Xavi, puyol) with more respect and appreciation. When a player like xavi wants a raise....it should not even reach the public until everything is cleared up between the club and player. I think he deserves to make as much as samu and Messi not just for his talent but also for his loyalty and dedication to the team.
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