Barcelona have made a right mess of things so of course they will buy again – with two Premier League players in their sights.
BARCELONA LOOK TO PREMIER LEAGUE
Barcelona have made something of a cock of things but their solution is of course to spend more money, with SPORT claiming that Xavi has been promised two new players in January – a central midfielder and a right-back.
There are only two names mentioned in these particular reports – Wolves midfielder Ruben Neves and Manchester United right-back Diogo Dalot. Neves ‘does not have the quorum of the entire technical area’ apparently, presumably because he is not really a sexy name. But it is expected that he would be cheaper than some of the alternatives.
Dalot is seen as the perfect option for the problem right-back position but Barcelona know it would be ‘practically impossible’ to get him out of Manchester United in January, even though his contract expires at the end of the season.
Barcelona need to get rid of players too, and ‘Operation Exit’ could see Gerard Pique, Jordi Alba and Memphis Depay all leave in the January transfer window on free transfers. Frenkie De Jong is still available for a decent fee, though it did not go incredibly well the last time they tried to offload him to United.
OBLAK DI OBLAK DA
There may well be something of a goalkeeper hokey-cokey next summer when David De Gea could leave Manchester United (more on who might replace him here). The Athletic claim that De Gea would quite like to finally return to Spain, with Atletico Madrid a solution that could suit all parties.
So what of Jan Oblak? Well, ‘Tottenham Hotspur are monitoring the 29-year-old Slovenian as a replacement for Hugo Lloris, but his salary at Atletico is said to be significant. Oblak signed a new deal to 2028 last summer, although this has not been publicly announced.’
What we do know is that Tottenham should be seriously thinking about a long-term successor to Lloris, who will be 36 on Boxing Day.
ARSENAL DO NDUE NDILIGENCE ON NDICKA
Arsenal are reportedly among clubs “across Europe” in the race to sign Eintracht Frankfurt defender Evan Ndicka ahead of the end of his contract in 2023.
Ben Jacobs said: “Arsenal like the player. They’ve certainly done their legwork and their due diligence and their scouting on him. There’s a lot of interest in the player, not just from the Premier League but from all across Europe as well.”
READ MORE: The 20 best footballers out of contract in summer 2023 ranked according to ‘value’
Leave a Reply