TA: Barcelona still cannot register Joan Garcia after Inigo leaves the team, and is waiting for related audits

Hupu August 9th News TheAthleticUK wrote the column on Inigo Martinez's departure.

On Friday morning, Inigo Martinez drove away from Barcelona's base for the last time.

He arrived about an hour ago and said goodbye to his teammates and all the coaching staff members of the Barcelona first team. Club president Laporta also attended, wanting to say goodbye to one of the team’s most trusted deputys, who will now join Riyadh for a win in a free transfer.

After some thought, Barcelona agreed to fulfill the agreement reached with Martinez when they renewed their contract in March. This means that if there are huge offers in the Middle East, he can leave for free. Riyadh Victory tempted him with a two-year contract and a salary package that he had difficulty getting elsewhere.

Barcelona locker room sources — like all the sources cited in this article, demanding anonymity to defend their position — told TheAthletic that Martinez received a huge offer from a Saudi league club last summer.

After talking to Frick, Martinez decided to reject the offer and stay, who wanted Martinez to be the core of the backline.

Off the court, Martinez's contribution to Barcelona is worth mentioning. First, he was willing to leave Athletic Bilbao to join Barcelona as a free agent (as a result, he was ridiculed every time he returned to San Mames);

Second, for the past two summers, he has been worried about whether his registration will be completed smoothly, and each time it is finally finalized before the deadline.

Therefore, Laporta and Deco agreed to include the terms he requested in Martinez's contract.

Barcelona insiders said the benefit of this transfer is that it can reduce wage expenditure by 14 million euros. The transfer is undoubtedly good news, given Laliga's salary cap limit and uncertainty among new signing players Joan Garcia and Marcus Rashford.

club insiders also said that Martinez's departure is still not enough to register Garcia, which is their current priority. They are still waiting for the VIP seating fee (the future earnings of the administrative box of the Camp Nou stadium sold in December of last year for 100 million euros) to be approved by the auditor and included in the budget.

It is not clear when or if the amount will be finally fulfilled. Sources in Barcelona said they would not sign anyone to replace Martinez – but given their still-existing registration issues, it would be unwise to do so now that the La Liga starts with just one week.