No salary cut in place for Barcelona captain, for now

FC Barcelona officials are still busy trying to find ways to generate cash and reduce their over-inflated wage bill. Sporting director Mateu Alemany is the man leading the charge, but he has apparently failed to further slash captain Sergio Busquets' salary.

With the season over, Barcelona need to act quickly if they want to make any significant moves during the summer transfer window. However, with players moving far too slowly out the exit door, they need to free up come cash and space in the salary cap in other ways.

According to Marca, Alemany has been in touch with a number of players' representatives with the aim of negotiating wage cuts. It has been reported numerous times in the past month that Busquets and his co-captains Gerard Pique and Jordi Alba will likely see their wages reduced further.

It may be remembered that as it stands, these players along with many others in the Barcelona organisation both on and off the field already agreed to reduce their salaries late in 2020 due to the financial strain brought about by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

A few weeks ago, club officials confirmed plans for further reductions, and Busquets slammed the club for speaking about it to members of the media before speaking to the players themselves. "I'd like to hear it from them and not from somewhere else, but I am always willing to help. They haven't proposed anything to us, they haven't told us anything beyond what we hear from the press," he said.

As it turns out, Alemany's meeting with Busquets' representative Jose Maria Orobitg last Sunday did not result in any salary cuts for the captain. He only has a year left in his contract, and it remains to be seen what will happen beyond this season.

Meanwhile, Pique has reportedly already agreed to slash his wages further. He is also eager to get on the club's good side, after earning a lot of criticism for his off-field activities including his highly-publicised separation from Colombian pop star Shakira.