In the aftermath of Gerard Pique announcing his retirement, Barcelona have received a boost in terms of creating space on the wage bill. But that will not stop the club from trying to offload Jordi Alba in January to free up more salary mass, reports SPORT.
Alba, like Pique, is one of the highest-earning members of the squad and Barça have been eager to get his wages off the books for a while now.
The report claims that the veteran defender, who has previously accepted wage cuts and deferred payments, was willing to do so again this past summer. However, nobody from the club approached him regarding that.
Instead, Barcelona tried to ship him off to Inter Milan late in the summer window. And even though he is still willing to negotiate a reduced contract with the club, it is claimed that Barça will once again look to part ways with the left-back in January.
However, Alba has no intentions of leaving Spotify Camp Nou at the moment. The 33-year-old believes that he can still offer a lot to the club and help the team.
At the same time, the Spaniard is reportedly upset with the management for not talking to him directly about his situation, as he has always been open to helping out the club in whatever possible way.
The report further claims Alba believes that his limited game-time under Xavi Hernandez this season is a tactic from the club to get him to leave.
The 33-year-old is behind Alejandro Balde and Marcos Alonso in the pecking order, featuring in just ten games (seven starts) across all competitions. However, he has performed fairly well in most matches whenever called upon.
Alba believes that Xavi has orders from above to restrict his playing time so that he might consider a departure. But, he has no intentions of leaving Barcelona and plans to see out the remainder of his contract, which expires in 2024.