Barcelona Appoint Ramon Planes as New Technical Director

Barcelona have announced that Ramon Planes is the club’s new technical director, replacing Eric Abidal following the Frenchman’s departure from Camp Nou earlier this week.

Planes initially joined Barça in 2018 as an assistant to Abidal, having previously worked for Getafe in a similar technical secretary role. He also has experience in England with Tottenham and initially was technical secretary and later sporting director for Espanyol from 2007 until 2012.

Planes’ promotion comes as changes sweep through the Camp Nou corridors in the wake of a disappointing season compounded by an 8-2 thrashing by Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

Coach Quique Setien, who was brought in to replace the sacked Ernesto Valverde in January, has already been shown the door, with Abidal following only 24 hours later.

President Josep Maria Bartomeu is determined not to step down and is focusing on re-election next year for another term at the helm. He is adamant that Barça are currently going through a ‘sporting crisis’ that will be fixed by a squad overhaul and not a more serious ‘institutional crisis’.

Meanwhile, former Barça player Ronald Koeman has now been officially announced as the new first-team coach.

President Bartomeu has also hinted at plans to offload much of the current squad, labelling only eight players as ‘non-transferable’. They are Lionel Messi, Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, Clement Lenglet, Nelson Semedo, Frenkie De Jong, Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele and Ansu Fati.

Philippe Coutinho may also get a reprieve depending on Koeman’s opinion of the player.

But it means the likes of Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba, Ivan Rakitic, Sergi Roberto and others could be heading for the door sooner rather than later.

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