Barcelona president Joan Laporta stayed silent before lunch with the Elche board, on his first trip since suffering a cardiac arrhythmia, with Julian Alvarez and Alejandro Balde at the centre of attention.
Laporta is in Elche at the head of the Barcelona delegation, which plays its first match of the 2026-2027 La Liga season tonight at Elche's stadium.
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According to "Mundo Deportivo", the club president is Barca's most prominent representative at the board lunch, but he refused to comment on arrival at the restaurant, even with the transfer market dominating every conversation.
Sporting vice-president Rafa Yuste joined Laporta, alongside two new board members, Jaume Santiveri and Xavier Barnиol, who backed Joan during the electoral campaign in March and took up their positions on 1 July. Elche sent president Christian Bragarnik and general manager Pedro Lucio Chinoca to the meeting.
This was Laporta's first trip since an irregular heartbeat struck on his return from the United States, where he had watched the final stages of the World Cup. He declined to say a word to the media, despite the presence of plenty of figures wrapped up in the transfer market, from inside the squad and out. Take Julian Alvarez, a key Barcelona target since the end of last season to replace Robert Lewandowski at centre-forward.
Within the current squad, one name dominates the day: Alejandro Balde. Hansi Flick left the Catalan left-back out of the squad for the Elche match, and a departure now looks more likely after he hinted at it in yesterday's press conference, where he refused to clarify his future or that of Jules Kounde.
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The French player is already part of Barcelona's squad for the league opener, as the team chases its first three points on the road to a third consecutive title.
Only two men have managed the feat with the club. Johan Cruyff won four in a row between 1991 and 1994, and Pep Guardiola landed three between 2009 and 2011.