BY ISLAM SABULINO.
(News Of The South) – The Catalan giants are between a rock and a hard place as they are facing problems from both the pitch and boardroom squabbles that have seen the dismissal of Sporting Director Andoni Zubizarreta in connection with a string of poor signings.
Zubizarreta, 53, played at Barcelona as a goalkeeper between 1986-1994 and he returned to Camp Nou as Sporting Director in 2010. On his arrival he showed signs of positive traits by bringing in Andriano Javier Mascherano and David Villa to the club to strengthen Pep Josep Guardiola’s side.
However, in 2011-2012 season Carles Puyol missed greater part of the campaign through injury and it was clear that the Catalan needed another defender, but alas, Zubi brought Alex Song in the summer of 2012 instead of a natural defender, a move which proved costly for Barca as they went on to be dismantled 7-0 on aggregate against Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
As if that was not bad enough, Zubizarreta in 2013 failed to address the same old problem as he told the new mentor Gerrado Tata Martino to work with what was available.
Surprisingly, last summer Alexis Sanchez and Cesc Fabregas were sold to Arsenal and Chelsea respectively, this paved the way for two defenders in the form of Jeremy Mathieu and Thomas Vermaelen who is yet to kick a ball since his arrival due to recurrence injury.
There are also rumours that club President Josep Maria Bartomeu is unpopular and elections could be called this year instead of waiting until 2016. His unpopularity emanates from the club’s controversal Neymar transfer and now banned from signing players for two transfer windows due to irregularities in the signing of minors.
On the pitch, Barcelona are currently playing their worst level under the tutelage of Asturian mantor Luis Enrique who is stubborn to admit his mistakes of constantly changing the starting line-ups.The coaches’ mistakes have so far seen Barca lose four of their La Liga matches and one in the Champions league.
The News of the South has it on good account that the just dismissed Sporting Director Zubizarreta was a scapegoat for all the problems at Barca and his dismissal will probably usher in the new era.But mind you, Barcelona will not sign any player in 2015!!!
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