La Liga: Barcelona coach Flick leaves exit door open for first team quartet

Madrid, Aug 22 (IANS) Hansi Flick, coach of defending champion FC Barcelona, on Saturday left the door open for several players in his squad to leave the club before the end of the current transfer window.

Speaking to the press ahead of his side’s La Liga debut away to Elche on Sunday night, Flick was asked about players such as defenders Jules Kounde and Alejandro Balde, along with Hector Fort and midfielder Marc Casado, who are currently training apart from the main squad as the club looks to move them on this summer.

“It’s a club situation. We’re making a lot of changes. We have to wait until the end of the transfer window,” explained Flick when asked about all four players.

Barcelona has signed Anthony Gordon, Rodrigo Hernandez, Joao Cancelo and Karim Adeyemi for its first-team squad so far this summer, but Flick implied there will be more arrivals before the end of August, reports Xinhua.

“It’s normal when you decide you want new players: you think about how to make the team stronger,” added the coach, who made clear he had spoken to the quartet. “This is our situation. We were clear with these players, and now we have to wait until the end (of the transfer window),” Flick concluded.

Barcelona enter the game with new signings Anthony Gordon and Karim Adeyemi on the wings, Spain international midfielder Rodrigo Hernandez, and defender Joao Cancelo, who has returned to the club on a permanent deal following a successful loan spell in the second half of last season.

There is still no replacement for either Robert Lewandowski or Ferran Torres, which means coach Flick probably will not have a specialist central striker in his starting 11.

Fermin Lopez has offered to play as a false ‘number 9’, with Lamine Yamal, Gordon, Adeyemi and Raphinha providing options in a mobile forward line.

Hamza Abdelkarim’s strong displays and goalscoring form in preseason have earned him a place in the first-team squad, with talks underway over an improved contract for the 18-year-old Egyptian forward, who joined on a permanent deal at the start of the summer.

It remains to be seen how many minutes players such as Yamal, Gordon, Pedri, Jules Kounde and Eric Garcia will be able to play after the World Cup, while any involvement from Rodrigo and Cancelo is likely to be limited after they have had hardly any training.

–IANS

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