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A nervous couple of days lie ahead for Xavi Hernandez and Barcelona, as the new La Liga campaign kicks off in merely 24 hours.
With the Catalans’ season opener against Getafe looming on the weekend, the club still have a fair amount of legal hoops to jump through in order to register a number of key players.
Journalist Javi Miguel of Diario AS has now issued an update on who Xavi has available at the moment for the beginning of the season, with the race against time well and truly on to ensure he has his full roster at his disposal.
Nine players pending registration
Amid new signings, contract renewals and renegotiated deals, Miguel reminds us that there is now a large chunk of players that is yet to be fully cleared to participate in the new season.
Among the new signings are, of course, Ilkay Gundogan, Oriol Romeu and Inigo Martinez, the latter also struggling with injury at the moment.
Renegotiated deals and new contracts include those of Ronald Araujo, Inaki Pena, Marcos Alonso, Alejandro Balde, Sergi Roberto and Ez Abde.
Araujo, Gundogan, Romeu and Balde, in particular, are absolutely vital going into the new season, as they will form the cornerstones of Xavi’s setup as some of the most valuable players in the squad.
That means at present, the players Xavi has available include: Marc Andre ter Stegen, Andreas Christensen, Jules Koundé, Eric Garcia, Frenkie de Jong, Pedri, Gavi, Ferran Torres, Raphinha, Ansu Fati and Robert Lewandowski.
If Barcelona fail to register the previously named players in time, this is the only starting XI the manager can field.
The Catalans will now be hoping to immediately announce their deal to sell a percentage of Barça Studios to a German capital fund.
A 60-million-euro cash injection is expected from that deal, which will then allow the club to successfully field all the players and get the paperwork with La Liga done in time.
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