Skip to content

GASPART BLASTS PATHETIC BARCA

THE FUTURE of Carles Rexach at Barcelona continues to look shaky following club president Joan Gaspart's blast at the state of the team.

Gaspart pointed to the massive £55 million outlay in the summer compared to Barcelona's league position (eighth, six points behind leaders Deportivo La Coruna) and moaned there was little difference between the 2000-01 team and the current one.

Rumours of Boca Juniors boss Carlos Bianchi arriving in Catalunya have been growing for some time and although Rexach is a club man through and through, his days in charge of the first team seem to be numbered.

Despite a superb 3-1 victory in the Champions League at Liverpool and getting into the second phase of the competition, Barcelona have been patchy at best in the league and on Saturday they fell to an embarrassing 2-0 loss to Espanyol at Montjuic in the Catalunyan derby.

"We signed seven new players, but they have not strengthened the team and several of them do not even come up to the standards required for a place in the starting line-up," blasted Gaspart.

This seems a strange claim to make, given that Roberto Bonano, Javier Saviola, Patrik Andersson and Francesco Coco have appeared regularly for the club, whilst Philippe Christanval, Fabio Rochemback and Geovanni have impressed during their opportunities, whilst the old guard like Sergi have let the club down and Rexach's use of Patrick Kluivert has been somewhat strange.

Gaspart added: "Our fans are tired of hearing promises.  "It is necessary to take appropriate measures as soon as possible to overcome the crisis at the club.

"The Catalan supporters want to know what concrete steps we are taking to improve the team's performance.

"I have already gone on record about my trust in Rexach's training methods.

"We chose him and there is no alternative.  We failed to acquire a more celebrated name like Fabio Capello, Arsene Wenger or Hector Cuper.

"So we decided to appoint Rexach as head coach, he was assistant technical director before.  But his predecessor, Llorenc Serra Ferrer, left him a legacy of unsatisfactory results.

"When the season ends, I will be guilty for all the failures of the team because the club take decisions based on my opinion.

"But one thing is obvious. Barcelona, who have glorious traditions and an incredible budget, should not be recording such poor results."