Barcelona duo train separately as summer exit looms

Neither player had a spot in Ronald Koeman’s Barcelona.

Depending on who you ask, Barcelona “solved” their biggest problem when Lionel Messi announced that he was staying at the club. With that no longer dangling over their heads, they are putting their focus back on their summer strategy.

With Ivan Rakitic already gone to Sevilla, the next players set to depart are the duo of Arturo Vidal and Luis Suarez.

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Both players are training alone at the request of Ronald Koeman as they finalize their moves away from Barcelona.

According to Sport, Vidal is set to be an Inter Milan as early as Monday or Tuesday. The Chilean midfielder will have to take his medical and COVID-19 test before participating in his first training session under Antonio Conte.

The structure of the deal may be similar to the one Barcelona struck with Sevilla and Rakitic. In other words, Vidal may leave for free or a very small amount with potential add-ons.

Inter were interested in Vidal both prior to the start of last season and during the winter transfer window. The Catalans rebuffed those advances and will now get a significantly lower amount than they would have gotten had they accepted a deal in either of those two cases.

Suarez is also likely headed to Serie A and Juventus. Mundo Deportivo report that the Uruguayan striker would need to pass a citizenship test to play in Italy. He didn’t have to do that in Spain because his wife holds an Italian passport.

What is yet to be resolved is whether or not Juventus will have to pay a fee. Initially, Suarez did not want to leave and would only do so if Barcelona paid his salary for his remaining year on his contract.

He and the club would have to come to an agreement but that should not be too big of a hurdle considering how desperate they are to move him on.

Barcelona’s “sales” not helping the club’s financial situation.

When they appointed Koeman, one of the roles they wanted him to take was that of the bad guy and doing a clear out of the veterans in the locker room.

While he has managed to do that, the players who have been moved on, or are close to, are not netting Barcelona much in terms of the transfer fee.

Because they waited too long to sell some of them and because of Josep Maria Bartomeu’s declaration that they were no longer wanted, the buying teams had the upper hand when it came to negotiating.

The only relief they are seeing is that the club no longer has to pay their wages going forward. However, it is still not anywhere near enough to help fund for transfers that need to be made to improve the squad.

With the looming departures of Suarez and Vidal, unless they plan on counting on academy players, Barcelona are going to need to sign at least a replacement for Suarez. Something they should have done a long time ago.

The transfer window doesn’t shut until October meaning they have a little time to figure things out. But the longer they wait, the more they might have to pay to sign some of their targets.

Both financially and administratively, the club is a mess. A mess that may not be able to be cleaned up until a new regime takes over.