For several months, despite the financial crisis hitting the world of football, FC Barcelona seems determined to have fun on the transfer market. Indeed, while several specialists expect operations above € 100m to be slowed down, the blaugrana club has set its sights on Inter Milan’s Argentine striker Lautaro Martinez and Parisian Neymar. Two cracks whose cumulative market value greatly exceeds € 200 million.
Not enough to scare the old president Josep Maria Bartomeu. “Despite this crisis, our recruitment policy is not changing, even if there will not be as much money this summer. Operations in the form of player exchanges are expected “ Except that for the moment, Barça will mainly try to degrease rather than trying to exchange players. Lately, Philippe Coutinho’s possible transfer to Chelsea (after his loan to Bayern) has been good news for the Catalans if the right price is negotiated.
Barça aims for 9 starts
Because according to AS, the Barcelona management still has the possibility of selling no less than nine players next summer: Ousmane Dembélé, Ivan Rakitic, Jean-Clair Todibo, Arturo Vidal, Nelson Semedo, Junior Firpo, Samuel Umtiti, Philippe Coutinho and Martin Braithwaite. So many potential departure candidates whose total value would be estimated at € 245 million. Dembélé and Coutinho are the highest rated items (around € 60 million). Except that these nine elements are still far from gone.
But if Coutinho is in a hurry to leave and has leads, no one seems to show as much enthusiasm for Dembélé. As for Rakitic, the Croatian has just put a heavy pressure on his leaders, refusing to be carried around in the transfer window when he still has a year of contract. For its part, Schalke 04 would like to keep Todibo permanently. But then again, things have been complicated because of the coronavirus crisis and the resulting financial losses. To be continued.
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