Thomas Heurtel has not received permission to get on the plane that brings Bar?a back from Istanbul, where this afternoon they lost in a Euroleague match against Anadolu Efes (86-79). The decision to leave the French base in Turkey responds to the club's anger at the Frenchman's lies in the negotiations to terminate his contract with Bar?a.
Heurtel and his agency, Beobasket, had led Bar?a to believe that the player was going to sign for Turkish Fenerbah?e once an agreement was reached for the termination of his contract. The player had even asked to travel to Istanbul - despite not entering into the coach's plans - in order to close the operation with his theoretical new team. But just when an economic agreement already existed and only the signature was missing, Bar?a learned that Fenerbah?e had no interest in Heurtel, who has been secretly negotiating to sign for Real Madrid. The trip to Istanbul was nothing more than a diversionary maneuver by the French.
Jasikevicius's anger with Heurtel is enormous, to the point that both his departure from the club and the arrival in his place of his compatriot Leo Westermann, a player from his same agency who has just been cut by Fenerbah?e, have been left up in the air. Westermann already had an agreement with Bar?a but the club wants to reverse it in the face of the new situation.
Wow, I've liked Heurtel, sad that things went so far but his agency actually wanted Barca to pay part of his wages so he could play for RM. Yeah, no way the club was furious when they've found that out. They should've still reacted differently though. Bring him back to BCN and let him root in the stands until his contract expires but leaving him at the airport in a foreign country (especially in these times) is just wrong imo.
