BARCELONA have FINALLY registered new signings Memphis Depay and Eric Garcia after Gerard Pique agreed to a ‘significant’ pay cut.
The pair arrived on free transfers from Lyon and Manchester City respectively this summer.
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But in order to be eligible to play, they needed to make huge further reductions to the wage bill to operate within LaLiga regulations.
It was those rules – along with Spanish employment laws – that saw Lionel Messi forced out of the club.
But Pique, a product of the famous La Masia academy, has repaid his club with a selfless gesture to help Barca.
Boss Ronald Koeman paid tribute to the defender – and hopes other Barca legends will follow his lead to enable more signings to arrive at the Nou Camp, especially a forward.
Koeman said: “We all know the situation that the club finds itself in and it needs help in any way possible.
“Gerard, Sergio Roberto, [Jordi] Alba and Sergio Busquets have all been here for many years and they want to help and they have shown that.
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“This is their club and that shows in this gesture.
“It hurts all Barcelona supporters what Messi has done but we cannot live in the past.
“The squad is short of forward players and we have spoken about signing a striker.
“It would help us but let’s see if it can be possible.”
Ex-Barcelona forward Gary Lineker tweeted: “The great @3gerardpique is to take a substantial pay cut to ease @FCBarcelona’s registration issues.
“El Presidente del futuro. [The president of the future].”
However, more sacrifices to the budget need to be made before injured Sergio Aguero – or any other arrivals – can be added.
LaLiga set Barcelona an annual salary budget of £295million.
But they are currently operating at £340m so still need to cut around £45m, even with Messi and his mammoth wages gone.
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The Argentine icon joined Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer this week on an eye-watering £1m per week.
To make matters worse for Barcelona, who are already in £1billion of debt, the Nou Camp club still owe Messi £44.2m in deferred wages from last season.
Barca begin their new LaLiga campaign at home to Real Sociedad on Sunday.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
