The most eventful summer in Barça's history

BarcelonaXevi Pujol will land at Barça next week with almost all the work done. The Barça club expects to announce the incorporation of the new technical secretary from August 3, when two months will have passed since he announced his departure to Baskonia. The Culer team, led by Xavier O'Callaghan and Mario Fernández, has made many moves in what has become the busiest summer in the entity's history.Barça has already closed nine player signings, but there will be more. Olivier Nkamhoua, Justin Robinson, Josh Nebo, Umoja Gibson, Agustín Ubal, Stanley Umude, Olek Balcerowski, Tyrese Martin, and Tosan Evbuomwan are already confirmed. In addition, the club has incorporated Aleksander Sekulic as coach. “I know what my idea is and I know how to execute it. My main desire is to convince the players to represent the club's colors with sacrifice, fight, and a desire to win titles. The team has been formed with this idea in mind. The truth is that the average age of the squad was quite high, around 34 years old. The renewal was the first logical step. Barça needed a new impulse to strengthen the club's identity and culture,” he assures in an interview with Sportklub.The Slovenian coach acknowledges that he did not expect to sign for the Barça club. “I assumed that Barça already had an agreement with a new coach, but it turned out that this information was not correct. They were interested in me, as the club had an idea to impose a new direction and were looking for a coach to undertake it. It seems that in me they have seen a coach with a similar vision”, assures Sekulic, who has already spoken with Joan Laporta. “He wanted to meet me in person”, he says.The bad news are the departures. If we add first team players, coaches and young talents from the academy, more than fifteen people will not continue with Barça. The most painful departures are those of people who had contracts, like Xavi Pascual, Juani Marcos, Will Clyburn, Toko Shengelia and Moses Wright, who paid his termination clause before the club announced his signing. The center, who will leave 900,000 euros to the coffers of the Barça club, will play for Olimpia Milan. The non-arrival of Mike James is different, as it was Barça who backed down. The player had signed his contract, but the Barça entity did not.Shengelia's departure is also very painful. Although it had not been made public, the Georgian small forward had renewed for three years just a few months ago, when he still thought that Xavi Pascual and his friend Will Clyburn would remain on the team. Despite not wanting to abandon Barça, the player has decided, after a complex period of reflection, to move to Dubai Basketball. His clause is also 900,000 euros.

Despite the increase in salary investment from 28.6 to 35 million euros, the dressing room is distrustful of the project. Doubts about the team's competitive capacity have been spreading. Another player who does not see his continuity clearly is Kevin Punter. He is worried about what is happening, but his ascending contract means that, for the moment, no club sees his incorporation clearly. If he does not end up leaving, the North American guard will be one of the only four players who will remain with the Catalan team, which will also include Juan Núñez, Darío Brizuela, and Joel Parra.Lower and lower

A total of seven players whose contracts were ending will not wear the Barça jersey next season either. These are Tomás Satoransky, Nico Laprovittola, Myles Cale, Miles Norris, Willy Hernangómez, Jan Vesely, and Youssoupha Fall. Assistant coaches Íñigo Zorzano, Òscar Orellana, and Albert Oliver are also leaving.The young players Daniel González, Sayon Keita, Nikola Kusturica and Joaquim Boumtje-Boumtje, who had already debuted with the first team, will also not continue at Barça and will continue their progression at UCAM Murcia, UCLA, North Carolina and Duke, respectively. The only good news is that the Council of Ministers has granted Mohamed Dabone Spanish nationality.