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Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman has reportedly agreed to take a pay-cut on his hefty £10m salary at the club and could speak with his players in a bid to convince them to do the same.
In the last few months, owing to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Blaugrana, like most other football clubs, have suffered heavy financial losses, which have been exacerbated by the continued absence of fans in stadiums.
To mitigate the same, several clubs have proposed cost-cutting measures like asking their players to agree to reduced wages. However, Barcelona haven't been successful in that regard.
After months of negotiations, the Barcelona board recently released a statement mentioning that they were unable to convince their players to take a pay-cut.
It is understood that some players like Frenkie de Jong and Gerard Pique are among those willing to take a 30% pay-cut, but others like Lionel Messi have not agreed to do so.
Barcelona have one of the heftiest wage bills in the world, with over €351 million spent on player salaries yearly.
The La Liga governing body recently reduced the club's wage cap from £601m to £342m to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Barcelona still need more financial cuts to balance their sheets.
Recent reports have suggested that the Catalan giants have incurred losses of £88m, bringing the club's total debt to £440m; the club need to slash about £170m of their expenses, courtesy player pay-cuts, to prevent potential financial ruin.
As has already been mentioned before, Ronald Koeman, alongside his technical staff, has agreed to the proposed wage reduction, and it is understood that the Barcelona manager will speak to his players to do the same as well.
However, Ronald Koeman is not expected to pressure any player to agree to a pay-cut, emphasising that the final decision regarding the same rests with his players.
The impact of Barcelona's financial losses on their transfer activities
Owing to the financial losses suffered by most clubs across the continent, the recently-concluded transfer window was relatively low key compared to others.
There were only a handful of clubs who made major inroads in the window, with Chelsea the biggest spenders, while most remained largely content with the players they already had.
Ronald Koeman had earlier come out to state that financial constraints played a major role in Barcelona failing to sign either Georginio Wijnaldum or Memphis Depay, despite the club heavily linked with the duo during the summer. It is unknown if Barcelona would rekindle that interest in January.
The Blaugrana have started the 2020-21 season on an indifferent note and currently find themselves languishing in a lowly 13th spot in the league table ahead of the visit of Osasuna this weekend.
