The reasons Barcelona suspended transfer summit to discuss Eric Garcia
The Man City defender is a long-term target and Koeman wants him to come this month
Barcelona's signing of Eric Garcia from Manchester City this month, with the transfer window closing on Monday, Feb. 1, has become a complete soap opera.
The latest episode occurred on Friday. A meeting was arranged for 7pm to discuss the deal at the club's offices but it was called off in the afternoon.
Acting president Carles Tusquets was set to chair the meeting with the three presidential candidates all summoned, Joan Laporta, Victor Font and Toni Freixa. Sporting director Ramon Planes was also expected to attend.
What happened? You have to rewind to Thursday to understand the causes better. Font sent a letter to Tusquets in the evening asking that everyone involved at the club -- the interim board, the presidential candidates etc -- made one last effort to fulfil coach Ronald Koeman's wish and sign Garcia before the window shuts.
Font reiterated that it was perfectly feasible as the cost would be minimal this season and affordable on the coming years: Garcia would forgo his salary until the summer and City would accept the €3 million (plus add-ons) to be paid beyond this financial year.
Tusquets, therefore, called a meeting for Friday evening with the candidates. The surprise was that it was canceled 90 minutes later. Ronald Koeman, as was erroneously reported at first, had nothing to do with it. He was complete in the margin.
Acting board division
The reason Tusquets was obliged to cancel said meeting was because of the annoyance it caused some of his colleagues on the acting board, who learned of the meeting after it had been called.
In addition, they felt there was no reason to speak about Garcia again because everything had been made clear in the last meeting, with a pact that the defender would come in the summer, for free when his contract expires.
It's true that Tusquets' intentions were good and understandable, that he wanted to help Koeman, it's also true that the acting board don't understand why he's taking unilateral decisions and they're finding out later.
Meanwhile, Garcia is desperate to come to Barça now. He wants to join in January for a lot of reasons: because it's the team of his life and because he knows it would be the perfect place to play to have a chance of going to the Euros with Spain this summer.
If he stays at City with Pep Guardiola, where he doesn't want to renew his contract, he's aware he will not play and, therefore, could struggle to convince Luis Enrique to call him up.
