Barcelona’s new signing Arda Turan will not be able to play for the club until January 2016 despite having just signed from Atletico Madrid for a mammoth transfer fee of € 41 million.
The 28-year-old is expected to go straight into the first-team as the replacement for Xavi Hernandez. Even though he is a completely different player to the iconic Barcelona legend, it is expected that manager Luis Enrique will sufficiently transformed the team’s tactics in order to suit a player like Turan. Barcelona are under a Fifa ban that will prevent them from adding any new players to the squad until the end of 2015.
The ban has been in place for more than six months, but it has not prevented the club from completing the deals. One of the most important among them is the arrival of Turan. Since the player will not be able to play for Barcelona immediately, there has been suggestions that he will be loaned out to another club for the next five months in order to maintain his fitness levels. Even the 28-year-old suggested that he is frightened at the prospect of being idle for five months. Enrique, though, has stated that the player will not be sent out on loan and that he will want to work with the player until then.
“They cannot play until January and that does not favour us, but I want the new transfers around until then.It is not being contemplated nor will it be contemplated to loan out Arda Turan,” said Enrique during the pre-season tour of United States. A number of top players like Lionel Messi and Neymar have been excluded from this tour in order to allow him recuperate after a tight schedule. The South American players have been involved in non-stop football over the last two years.