The boss of the relegation-threatened La Liga side who lost their top scorer to Barcelona has said the rule that allowed the Spanish giants to make the emergency move outside of the regulation transfer window has ‘f***** us over’.
Javier Aguirre lost Martin Braithwaite, the Denmark forward who has scored six goals for his Leganes team, in a surprise move earlier this week as a result of a Spanish FA loophole giving clubs special dispensation to replace players who are out injured for more than five months.
After proving that regular marksmen Ousmane Dembele and Luis Suarez will be long-term absentees, second-placed Barca activated Braithwaite’s £15 million ($19.1 million) release clause, providing much-needed competition for Lionel Messi at the expense of Aguirre’s struggling squad.
Speaking ahead of their crucial trip to Celta Vigo tomorrow, when they will face opponents who are two points ahead of them and a place above the relegation zone, Aguirre asked: “What do you want me to say? Do you want me to cry?
“They f***** us over. But the sun rose today and, as long as FIFA allows us to play with 11 players, fantastic.
“We’re fine, we’re strong. It would be disrespectful to say we’re f***** because we have 26 very good players.
“As long as they let me play with 11, the rest is not important. No FIFA rules have prevented us from playing without a goalkeeper, for example.
Leganes’s second-greatest goal threat, 22-year-old Morocco striker Youssef En-Nesyri, had already moved to high-fliers Sevilla during the January transfer window, having scored five times for the club this season.
“Martin’s thing upsets me like Youssef’s,” admitted Aguirre. “He leaves as a player who was playing, nothing more. I do not spin it more than that.
“I take it as if it was a ban or an injury. These are football circumstances. You don’t imagine, when you’re bottom, having two players whipped away. It’s true that something like this has never happened to me.”
Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu offered an apology to Leganes following the signing, saying: “We have paid the clause following the regulations, although we believe that it should be revised because it is not fair that Leganes cannot now sign anyone.”
Aguirre responded by saying that he had heard “all kinds of qualifications” and could not “add much more”, conceding: “Barca acted according to regulations. It did not deceive anyone. It was like that since the beginning of the season. Everyone draws the conclusions they want.”
There has been widespread questioning of Barca’s decision to sign Braithwaite, who joined Leganes last year following an unremarkable spell at English Championship side Middlesbrough and is not known as a prolific goalscorer of the caliber of Messi and summer arrival Antoine Griezmann.
Coverage of Braithwaite’s arrival at Camp Nou suggested no-one had turned up to the unveiling of the 28-year-old and even mocked him for struggling to perform a skill during the signing ceremony.
Aguirre seemed uncertain over the role his former player would perform for the Champions League contenders, pointing out: “I do not know what he is going to contribute – they will already know why they hired him.
“I told him the same as those who have left before: what luck, and they will always find me as a friend. I am someone with whom they can message and ask for advice.”
The well-travelled Mexican manager expects to stay in touch with Braithwaite and En-Nesyri during his attempt to steer Leganes out of the relegation zone, where they are currently above bottom side Espanyol on goal difference with 14 Liga matches left to play.
“We have contact, as with all my previous clubs,” he said. “I like to maintain friendships. Soccer is temporary. The human being is the one that matters.
“They did what they had to do at this club and delivered the best they had. That’s it. I can’t, shouldn’t and don’t want to regret thinking about what would have happened. They contributed what they had to contribute and now it’s up to someone else to do it.
“We have a significant deficit of points, it is true, but if we compare the first 12 games, which led to only one victory, then we have improved a lot.
“We need points and we are going to Vigo to win, with 11 on the field and seven on the bench – according to regulations.”
Leganes could be reunited with Braithwaite when they travel to Camp Nou on March 22, before En-Nesyri and Sevilla visit the Estadio Municipal Butarque the following month.
