Gerard Piqué urges Barcelona to tell fans truth about club،
Barcelona legend Gerard Piqué has warned the club against deceiving fans and encouraged the club to be open and transparent about their situation.
Barca are around €200 million ($217 million) over La Liga's annual spending limit of €204 million, preventing them from registering any potential new signings or contract renewals with the league.
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On the pitch, they have fallen eight points behind La Liga leaders Real Madrid and have been eliminated from the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup since the start of the year.
They remain in the Champions League, with the last-16 second leg against Napoli being played next week, but Pique is not convinced things are looking good in the short term.
“Fans want honesty and transparency,” the former Barca central defender said on Ibai Llanos' Twitch channel.
“If reality is harsh, say so. What you can't do is sell smoke and mirrors and say we're going to win the Champions League if you don't have the money to compete.
“I don't know the club's situation at the moment. From what I can understand, it doesn't look very good, but what about it? socios [members] the value is in telling them the truth to their faces.”
One of the major positives for Barça this season has been the emergence of talented youngsters like Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsí and Fermín López from the academy.
Piqué, who retired at the end of 2022, believes fans would understand if president Joan Laporta said the club was going to focus on local players while getting back on its feet financially.
“If you say, ‘Look, we don’t even have a cent to spend, so for the next two or three years we’ll look to La Masia,’ people will accept it,” he said.
“The message should be that we have confidence in the academy, that there are good players with a lot of talent. Bring them through and try to compete for La Liga.
“What you can't do is say 'I'm going to sign [Erling] Haaland', which sounds great, but how do you do it? I'm just using Haaland as an example, it has nothing to do with rumors. I could also say [Kylian] Mbappé or whoever.”
