Barcelona have not been the best side in Spain this season, but to the surprise of many, they haven’t even been the best side in Catalonia. Shown up by Girona, no more clearly than during their 4-2 defeat them, Relevo say that the Blaugrana are somewhat jealous of their northern neighbours.
The feeling at Girona is that Barcelona’s presumed interest in Aleix Garcia, which emerged after the player declared an interest in wearing their shirt, was simply a distraction technique. They feel Barcelona have no real chance of signing Garcia.
Relations between the two clubs were tested after Oriol Romeu was signed by Barcelona, but remain good, having gone back some time. In spite of that, it is claimed that there are certain elements at Barcelona that do not want to see Porto midfielder Nico Gonzalez sign for Girona.
The two have been linked with a loan deal. Barcelona will receive 40% of any sale, which would no doubt go down well, but a loan is of little use to their bank balance. The reason particular people at Barcelona do not want to see him there is they are worried that Michel Sanchez will make them look bad if he manages to get much better performances out of Nico.
Girona have gotten the best out of Romeu, loanee Eric Garcia, and against Atletico Madrid, Pablo Torre also looked dangerous. This is in stark contrast to their fates at Barcelona, where all three barely played, and were non-factors under Xavi Hernandez. The fear is that the same could happen with Nico.
With Xavi under pressure and being openly questioned, it certainly isn’t helping that Michel has Girona playing more effective and more aesthetic football with an eighth of the resources. The two situations are not the same, but there is no argument that Michel is doing a better job than Xavi currently, and no surprise that he has been linked with Xavi’s job too.
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