Jordi Alba agrees Barcelona wage cut
By Tom Gott
Barcelona left-back Jordi Alba has finalised the terms of his wage cut at Camp Nou, following fellow defender Gerard Pique in doing so.
In order to register Memphis Depay, Eric Garcia and Rey Manaj in time for the new season, Pique agreed to a significant pay cut to give Barcelona the financial wiggle room needed, and the centre-back stressed that other team leaders would follow suit.
Alba publicly insisted that he was more than happy to help out by agreeing a pay cut, but noted that Pique agreed his deal first and Barcelona only needed one agreement to get the aforementioned trio registered in time.
A few weeks later and Alba has finalised his agreement. While nothing has been confirmed by the club just yet, ESPN note that the terms of the left-back's pay cut have now been formally agreed and should free up enough space to register Sergio Aguero, who remains on the fringes while he recovers from injury.
It is suggested that Alba has agreed to give up 25% of his salary and has also accepted to defer another significant portion of his wages in an attempt to help Barcelona stay afloat amid mounting debt problems.
With the Alba deal now done, Barcelona will turn their attention to striking similar arrangements with other veterans like Sergio Busquets and Sergi Roberto, both of whom are expected to be willing to help out.
To try and keep the cuts going, Barcelona hope to offload both Miralem Pjanic and Samuel Umtiti. The former has attracted significant interest from Italy and is likely to leave the club on loan, but the latter's situation remains incredibly complicated.
Umtiti continues to reject the chance to leave the club permanently and has therefore been warned that he could be 'fired' if he remains on the books by the end of the transfer window.
While all these cutbacks will help Barcelona register their new signings, they would not have been enough to retain Lionel Messi, who gave the Blaugrana as much time as possible to figure out a solution before inking a deal with Paris Saint-Germain.
Spanish law dictates that any worker cannot sign a new contract which is worth over 50% less than their previous deal - a rule designed to prevent money laundering and other financial misdemeanours - which is why neither Messi nor any of the other Barcelona players can simply agree to play for free.