The toing and froing between Barcelona and Ronald Koeman over the Dutchman's severance pay-off continues, with an offer of €7.5million currently on the table.
Gerard Romero tweeted that the cash-strapped Catalans are willing to pay this fee over two instalments, but Koeman is playing hardball and wants the original €12million plus the bonuses he is owed.
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Sport.es published quotes on Sunday made by Lluis Canut, a journalist close to Koeman, who claimed that Barcelona were pleading for him to take a pay-off lower than €12million - calls which were rejected.
He said: "He wants to take up to the final cent of it.
"It's 12 million, but I want to clear up that this is nothing to do with the money paid to the Dutch federation [to sign him]; that was five million euros that Barcelona paid straight away.
"I don't know if this figure of 12 million includes what has to be paid for his technical team or if it's just for him; taking into account that he delayed 45 per cent of his salary last season because of the pandemic.
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"In the first conversations they had they asked him to take a cut of around 7 or 8 million, far from the 12 they have to pay him.
"It's a contract signed by both sides, not by the current board but it's a recognised contract and it's not about letting them off, it has to be paid."
Koeman was dismissed following a 1-0 La Liga defeat to Rayo Vallecano last Wednesday. Sergi Barjuan oversaw a 1-1 draw with Alaves in his first match in interim charge, before overcoming Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League with a 1-0 win on Tuesday.
Legendary midfielder Xavi is expected to become the next permanent boss, after club officials Mateu Alemany and Rafa Yuste were pictured in Qatar ahead of talks with his current club, Al Sadd.
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Barcelona are next in action on Saturday when they travel to Celta Vigo, and head into the game sitting ninth in the La Liga table with 16 points from 11 games.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Xavi, Barcelona, Ronald Koeman, La Liga
