Sports Burst - Barca's Dirty Dozen
Barcelona to plan BOGO and multipack deals as Ronald Koeman begins job of shifting twelve key players out of the Camp Nou
By Tim Stannard
Gerard Pique and Luis Suarez lead list of 12 unwanted players at the Camp Nou
An institutional purge now seems to have been completed at Barcelona with the old sporting director and coach being heaved out the door and new ones coming in.
Thursday sees the start of shifting what has been identified by the club president as footballing deadwood.
Ronald Koeman began his first formal day as Barcelona boss on Wednesday by having to deal with the topic of how to placate Lionel Messi - a welcome bouquet of flowers, something shiny from Amsterdam airport's gift shop - and what to do with 12 key players that have been publicly declared as very transferable from Barcelona.
If Josep Bartomeu identified a list of eight Untouchables, then he also has a Dirty Dozen. So, step forward Gerard Pique, Sergi Busquets, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba, Sergi Roberto, Samuel Umtiti, Ivan Rakitic, Philippe Coutinho, Arturo Vidal, Riqui Puig, Martin Braithwaite and Miralem Pjanic.
These are all names that other big clubs around Europe - not to mention North America - are going to be picking over.
Will there be BOGO deals? Can Arsenal bring in Gerard Pique and get Ivan Rakitic for free?
What savings are there for getting a multipack of five?
Will buyers treat Barcelona as Costco and go in for one player but come away with seven and ten times the planned budget being spent?
One player who was long ago cast adrift by Barcelona, Gerard Deulofeu, has been speaking about Barcelona's current situation - 'I don't care' was the vibe - and also Koeman, who was his coach during a spell at Everton. "He provided me absolutely nothing. I wasn’t happy," blasted the Spanish winger in warming words for concerned Barcelona fans.
The Sports Burst live show will be back on the Barcelona transfer train at 12PM ET on our beIN SPORTS Facebook page and beIN XTRA channel.
And at 4PM ET, the beginning of the end of the LaLiga season kicks off with the first leg of the playoff final between Elche and Girona.
Tottenham might be tempted into a Bale-out
Staying neatly on the topic of trying to prod well-paid, trophy-stuffed, salary-suckers out the door and Real Madrid's bosses also have a challenge on their hands in trying to dispose of Gareth Bale. Again.
However, there are two main obstacles to ejecting the Bale from the club. The 31-year-old still has two years left on his very plump contract - given to him by those same Madrid bosses - and doesn't seem to mind too much about being left out of Coach Zizou's plans.
The second is that an enormous reported salary of $20 million a year makes it very hard for other clubs in the world to justify spending that much for a footballer in his early thirties with a reputation for being injury prone and sporting an out of date man-bun.
But that hasn't stopped Spanish TV station, Cuatro, reporting that Tottenham and Jose Mourinho might be interested in taking in the side's former player this summer if everyone can agree a financial deal. Which isn't going to happen anytime soon.
Madrid target Lukaku as Benzema successor
According to Italian outlet, Corriere Dello Sport, Real Madrid has chosen the successor to Karim Benzema - Martin Braithwaite!
Not really.
Instead, after last season's tremendous success of bringing in Eden Hazard, Madrid might double down on Belgians by making a bid for Inter Milan striker, Romelu Lukaku. The former Manchester United man is on the eve of a Europa League final appearance with Inter against Sevilla and scored 23 Serie A goals for the Serie A side this season.
Elsewhere, Thiago Silva is set to play his last game for PSG on Sunday in the Champions League final against Bayern Munich, which might be a very pleasant way to bow out.
The 35-year-old Brazilian is looking for one last gig and three teams currently trying to tempt Silva in are Milan, Fiorentina and Chelsea.
Ligue 1 is back in action on Friday and beIN SPORTS is all over it once again. Coverage begins at 12:30PM ET for a vintage start as Bordeaux hosts Nantes.