Barcelona 'Annoyed' Over Player's Reluctance To Take Pay Cut

Barcelona are annoyed at one of their four captains for the season for refusing to take a pay cut amidst the club's financial problems.

Barcelona's issues have been extremely well documented over the past 10 days, with their inability to register Lionel Messi leading to his emotional departure from the club.

As well as the former captain, the club were also struggling to register their new signings, with La Liga restarting this weekend and Ronaldo Koeman's side taking on Real Sociedad on Sunday.

On Saturday though the club were able to make sure Memphis Depay and Eric Garcia can play, as well as former B team player Rey Manaj, thanks to Gerard Pique.

The centre back is one of the four men who will share the captaincy, now Messi has gone, and his decision to take a pay cut helped the club with the new registered players, but one of his fellow captains won't go the same way.

According to AS, Barca are annoyed at fullback Jordi Alba for not agreeing to reduce his wages, with his current deal running until 2024.

The report does say that the left back has agreed to have €10 million of his deal be paid at the end of the contract instead of this season.

Jordi Alba doesn't want a wage reductions. Image: PA Images

Pique agreed to both defer his payment to a later date and take a pay cut, as the centre back has really made an incredible sacrifice as the new captain.

Alba is said to have been heavily affected by the loss of Messi and you can't really blame him for refusing to take a pay cut, it's not his fault the club has been so badly run.

The other two club captains are Sergio Busquets and Sergi Roberto, the two players, like Alba, have yet to agree to reduce their wages.

The difference between the pair, and the man they'll share the armband with, is that they are still in negotiations over reducing their fees.

Pique has done the club a huge favour with his contract. Image: PA Images

Last week Alba, along with Samuel Umtiti and Antoine Griezmann, were within a group of players who were jeered and whistled at by Barcelona fans.

It was during the team's final pre season friendly against Juventus, where Depay really impressed, even though at that time there was no guarantee he'd be able to play this season.

Topics: Football, Barcelona, La Liga, Gerard Pique, Jordi Alba, Transfers, Lionel Messi

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a journalist for SPORTbible with over eight years of experience. Passionate about all sports, he mainly covers football and F1 - Daniel Ricciardo once spent an entire interview referring to him as 'Ryan Gosling,' still his proudest moment.

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