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The Spanish superclub announced that this summer there will be player changes in the team. Patrick Kluivert, Marc Overmars, Philip Cocu, Michael Reiziger, and Rustu Recber should leave the team.
At the same time, it was announced that Giovanni van Bronckhorst, who was loaned from Arsenal this season, will completely move to the Catalan club, and that the club has almost finalized the details of Juliano Belletti's transfer from Villareal.
After these announcements, it seems that the club's sports director Txiki Begiristain and coach Frank Rijkaard not only want to renew the team but, most importantly, reduce expenses on player salaries.
"We don't want them to stay," Begiristain said about Kluivert and Overmars. "Overmars played little last season and didn't contribute much to the team's success. Patrick feels a lot of pressure from the fans, and that is certainly not good for any player. Both Patrick and Rijkaard agreed on this matter."
Cocu, who played excellently last season, hoped to extend his contract with Barca, but in the meeting on Tuesday, he heard something different than he expected.
"He will leave the club because he wants a higher salary and additional bonuses," the Barcelona sports director said. "We have set a clear salary payment policy and we don't intend to make exceptions for any player."
"We have already identified a player who should replace Cocu," Begiristain hinted. "But we cannot reveal his name right now. He is not cheaper than Cocu, but he is younger, which means he would be a better investment for the future."
Cocu, who certainly has offers from other clubs, is likely to return to his homeland and represent Eindhoven's PSV.
The Barcelona sports director also mentioned Michael Ballack: "We are definitely interested in Ballack. We know he wants to leave Bayern, and if that happens, we will definitely try to attract him."
