“How is Vitor Roque?” asks one of the young men in the Barcelona locker room. “How is he going to be?”, resolves the same source; “Poor kid, his situation is very difficult.” While at the outset the Barça group looked with some suspicion at the arrival of the Brazilian forward (19 years old), today they feel sorry for his situation, ignored by Xavi in the lineups, food for the buzz of a transfer market that has not even begun, victim of the crossfire between the coaching staff and management. “There are only a few people responsible,” warned Deco, football director, about who decides how to make the squad. And he listed: “Me, the president and the coach… if the information doesn’t come from here, I don’t know where it comes from.” Deco’s response, on the eve of the duel against Real Sociedad, did not change Xavi’s plans: Vitor Roque did not play a single minute against the Basque team.
Xavi’s lack of confidence in Vitor Roque is nothing new, nor is the speculation about the Brazilian’s future. On Tuesday morning, on the program Què t’hi juges! Cadena SER reported on Barcelona’s intentions: to get rid of Roque next summer. News that Deco did not deny. However, the head of the football department avoided revealing the future of his compatriot. And, incidentally, he looked at the technical staff: “It’s normal, when there is no football there is news… Barça generates discussion and many other things. The debate on the squad and financial fair play must be internal. “We cannot have a public debate.”
But Deco is not the only member of the sports management who complains about the carousel of names to complete the squad that appear in the media. “There is talk of Nico Williams, Dani Olmo, Guido Rodríguez, Kimmich… all great players. But we have to work in silence. In the economic situation the club is in, we cannot raise the price of footballers. And there should be no added pressure on us either,” complained a member of the technical secretariat. The first response to the transfer market is not in the offices of Sant Joan Despí but in those of the Camp Nou: “The club must resolve the financial fair-play so that we can return to the 1×1 rule (one euro salary can be registered of a new player for every euro that comes from a transfer or loan)”, recalls the same source.
Vitor Roque, precisely, arrived at the club last January due to the financial difficulties in which the club finds itself. Given Gavi’s injury – he tore his cruciate ligament in November – the sports management had the option of replacing the youth player. “But we didn’t have fair-play to bring in a quality midfielder,” they say in the sports management. “So,” they add, “we offered Xavi the possibility of bringing forward Vitor’s incorporation, designed for the next market.”
Barça had announced the signing of Roque in July 2023: 30 million, plus another 31 in variables. The facilitator of the incorporation, André Cury, an agent who has brokered 17 players in whom the club invested 372 million, plus another 71 in variables.
The problem, for Roque, was that he landed at Barcelona after overcoming a muscle injury. “He is a great signing, he can contribute a lot to us,” Xavi explained in public. Privately, however, the staff warned: “he is a little overweight.”
And Roque’s presence has faded: in the first 11 games in the League he played 276 minutes (two goals); In the last four he stayed on the bench. “There is a lot of competition. There are other footballers in better conditions. He is a young boy who must improve,” explains Xavi. The technical secretariat responds: “It is difficult to adapt to a new city and a new club. At first, when he played, he didn’t do bad. Then he lost confidence.” “If the club does not give space to Vitor, unfortunately we will have to find a solution. It will not be a transfer, it is harmful for a young boy,” Cury explained on RAC1. Xavi opens the exit door for him, also the sports management. Meanwhile, Vitor Roque remains on the bench. “He was in trouble,” Xavi justified his new substitution. “The future is at home and not in the press,” says Deco. “Poor Vitor,” they conclude in the Barcelona squad.
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