Martin Braithwaite: A Blessing To Barcelona Or A Curse To Leganes?

The signing of Martin Braithwaite may have contributed to Leganes relegation tendencies with Leganes positioned at 19th on the table, 3 points below fellow relegation-threatened Mallorca and 6 points below 17^th placed Deportivo with 3 games left in the competition.

 

Barcelona availed themselves of an exemption by La Liga and the Spanish football association (RFEF) to sign Braithwaite outside of the regular transfer window following a season-ending injury to Ousmane Dembele.

 

In cases where players have been ruled out of action for five months or longer, it is deemed that an emergency transfer or signing is a reasonable request and administrators can facilitate it.

The Catalan club was given the green light to sign Braithwaite within RFEF regulations, which stipulate that a player can be brought in if they are a free agent or if they are contracted to another club in La Liga.

Since they were replacing Dembele, the replacement signing had to be like-for-like - that is, another forward - and a time limit of 15 days was put in place.

 

The transfer of Braithwaite to Barcelona has placed Leganes in a difficult position because it has seen them lose a key player while also being unable to sign a replacement.

While Barcelona is pushing for La Liga glory, Leganes finds themselves at the other end of the table fighting against relegation and Braithwaite was their top goal scorer.

His departure for Camp Nou serves to compound the difficulties faced by Los Pepineros, who had already been forced to contend with losing striker Youssef En-Neysri to Sevilla in January.

Leganes general director Martin Ortega told reporters: “We consider that there is an unfair regulation, from which Barcelona has benefited. The one who is damaged by this is Leganes."

The club is attempting to minimize their difficulty by appealing to the Spanish football authorities for a chance to sign a replacement for Braithwaite.

Leganes might appeal their relegation against the RFEF should they relegate at the end of the season on the 19th of July 2020 against Real Madrid.

The Danish player would be happy not just to play for Barcelona in his career but happier because he is not relegating with Leganes.