Sunday 27 May 2018

Barcelona Transfers: 10 Players They Must Sign This Summer

How much of that Neymar money is left?

Nike/PremierLeague.com

It's been a strange season for Barcelona. A last-minute slip-up at Levante aside, the Catalans went almost their entire league campaign undefeated, and yet there is an unavoidable sense that two trophies isn't quite enough.

Partly, this is because of the club's intense rivalry with fellow Spanish juggernauts Real Madrid, whose recent run of Champions League victories has cast an inescapable shadow over the rest of La Liga. But it's also the humiliating nature of their quarter-final defeat to Roma, in which they surrendered a three-goal lead to limp out on away goals.

To compound things, Barca have also had to say goodbye to Japan-bound Andres Iniesta, one of the game's all-time great players, and a figure who has been central to their success over the last decade. Like the search for Alex Ferguson's successor, finding someone to step into the playmaker's shoes is a near-impossible task.

If there's good news for Barca fans - apart from the obvious fact that completing the Double is a feat about which most of their rivals can only dream - it's that their club have a track record for splashing the cash. Last year they spent more than €300 million filling the gap left by Neymar - and reports suggest they'll be reaching deep into their wallet once again this summer.

Here are 10 players that could be on their radar.

10. Antoine Griezmann

Mutsu Kawamori/AFLO/Nippon News/Corbis

Admittedly there won't be any prizes for correctly predicting that Antoine Griezmann is heading for Catalonia. For nearly a year he's been the subject of a long-winded transfer saga, and all the noises we hear suggest it will be completed after the World Cup.

The really interesting part is how he fits into this current Barca side, which is already equipped with three world-class attackers in the shape of Messi, Suarez and Coutinho, and a promising €100m rookie in Ousmane Dembele.

The latter could conceivably head out on a loan, although that doesn't quite clear the way for Griezmann. They'd still be playing what looks, on paper, like an incredibly top-heavy side.

Given that it was defensive lapses that cost them dear in Rome, manager Ernesto Valverde will have a job on his hands trying to integrate another superstar forward while also shoring things up at the back.

9. Christian Eriksen

Lynne Cameron/PA Wire

Spurs fans seldom get to go a full summer transfer window without worrying that their best players are about to be cruelly snatched away by one of Europe's big boys, and that trend looks set to continue in 2018.

This time it's Christian Eriksen, rather than Harry Kane and Delli Alli, who could be on the move, the Danish playmaker being one of the few players on the planet with the skill-set to replace Andres Iniesta.

Think about it: he can pass long and short, he's great at drifting between the midfield and defence of his opponents, and his through balls are second to none. He can even hit a mean set piece.

From a Barca point of view, the one drawback could be his relative lack of pace. Eriksen is a great footballer, but not exactly a tremendous athlete, and therefore needs a lot of legs around him to compensate. With Messi and Suarez in the side, that could be a big issue.

8. Thiago Alcantara

Adam Davy/EMPICS Sport

It's been claimed by some that Philippe Coutinho, a €120m January acquisition from Liverpool, is the man currently earmarked to take on Iniesta's playmaking duties next season.

But this has never seemed like a completely natural fit: the Brazilian is far less an eye-of-the-needle creative type than he is a traditional, goal-getting number 10.

To fill the number eight shirt, you ideally need a player capable of setting the tempo of the game. A player who can unlock deep-lying defences with combination play around the penalty box. A player who is already acquainted with the idiosyncratic Barcelona style.

So, how about Thiago Alcantara? A product of La Masia, the Bayern Munich star knows all about the on- and off-field demands of playing in Catalonia, and at 27, he's at the perfect age to replace Iniesta at the heart of the midfield.

7. Matthijs De Lgt

All these attacking players sound great in theory, but Barcelona weren't exactly short of flair this season, and they still conspired to get knocked out of the Champions League by a team with only a fraction of their budget.

What they really need is a commanding presence at the back. A player capable of filling the defensive void left by Javier Mascherano in the short-term and, perhaps eventually, take over from the ageing Gerard Pique.

Admittedly, that'd be a hell of a burden to place on the young shoulders of Matthijs de Ligt, an 18-year-old Ajax centre-half who is still some way short of his 100th game at club level.

Mind you, if Barca don't snap this kid up, one of their European rivals almost certainly will. He's practically destined to be one of the world's leading defenders, and having been reared in the Netherlands, he's more than capable of handling the ball in tight spaces too.

6. Arthur

He may share a name with your granddad, but don't let that fool you. Arthur has emerged as one of the brightest young talents in Brazil over the past year, courting the attention of a host of clubs in Europe as a result.

In fact, he already agreed a move to the Nou Camp back in March, which means that this isn't so much a "could happen" as it a "definitely will happen" once he formally signs on the dotted line in July.

Still, this move is just too big to ignore. Barca are paying Gremio more than €30mfor their 21-year-old playmaker, even though he's yet to turn out for his international side (albeit an international side with a frankly ridiculous level of depth).

According to scouting reports, Arthur is cut from the same cloth as midfield schemers like Cesc Fabegas and Thiago Alcantara, which would make him an ideal candidate to replace the outgoing Andres Iniesta. Talk about good timing.

5. Jean Seri

Another potential Iniesta replacement is Nice midfielder Jean Seri, who came desperately close to a move to the Nou Camp one year ago, only for the deal to collapse at the 11th hour.

Presuming he forgives them for leaving him high and dry last summer, Seri could be back on the Barca radar this one, especially now that an extra body in midfield for the Catalan giants is less a luxury than it is a priority.

In terms of playing style, the Ivorian ticks all of the Tiki Taka boxes. As well as being quick and energetic in the press, he's clever and resourceful with the ball, capable of wriggling out of tight spaces and finding teammates in the final third.

Possession football being in vogue at the moment, that sort of skill-set is likely to attract the interest of a whole host of clubs across Europe, but the man himself seems to have his heart set on a move to La Liga.

4. Justin Kluivert

Justin Kluivert to Barcelona always seems like a somewhat lazy transfer link, made primarily on the basis that his dad Patrick used to play at the Nou Camp back in the early noughties.

But it also makes a lot of sense from a playing style point of view. Schooled at Ajax - every Catalan's second-favourite club - the 19-year-old winger is already well-practised in the art of passing his opponents into submission.

For his personal footballing development, there are obvious downsides to jumping straight from the Eredivisie to one of Europe's biggest teams, especially when he would be competing for a starting spot with the likes of Messi, Suarez and Dembele.

But the opportunity to play in such an illustrious company is, in itself, a massive pull factor. It's the kind of move that only presents itself once or twice in a player's career. No matter what your head is telling you, you can't really afford to turn it down.

3. Alvaro Odriozola

Barca added a new right-back to their ranks as recently as last summer, signing Portugal's Nelson Semedo to a five-year contract after paying Benfica more than €30m.

But the Catalans are nothing if not ruthless. Cesc Fabregas, Alexis Sanchez, Pedro and Arda Turan are just some of the names to have been shown the Nou Camp exit door over recent years, and many of them weren't nearly as dispensable on paper.

Should they look to upgrade again, Real Sociedad's Alvaro Odriozola could be a viable replacement. The 22-year-old has enjoyed a terrific breakthrough campaign in San Sebastian, ending with a place in the Spanish World Cup squad.

It's not the kind of transfer that makes global headlines, granted, but acquiring the long-term services of one of Spain's most promising young players seems like an all-round smart move.

2. Marcos Alonso

By @cfcunofficial (Chelsea Debs) London (Leicester 0 Chelsea 3) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Chelsea's failure to qualify for the Champions League will have definitely caught the attention of Europe's big boys, particularly as regards the uncertain futures of Belgian duo Thibaut Courtois and Eden Hazard.

Another name that could be on the move, however, is left-wing-back Marcos Alonso, who has emerged as one of the Blues' most reliable performers since his move from Fiorentina two years ago.

As well as the lure of Europe's premier competition, the 27-year-old may also see a move back to his homeland as a good way to improve his international prospects, having been harshly cut from Spain's World Cup squad in favour of Nacho Monreal.

Like it or not, turning out every week for Barcelona gives you a much better chance of representing La Roja than playing at Stamford Bridge, especially when your side are languishing down in fifth place.

1. Mohamed Salah

By Дмитрий Голубович [CC BY-SA 3.0GFDL, CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

It's a little fantasy football, this one, but then we are talking about Barcelona here, the same club who four years ago had the cajones to build a front-line comprised of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar.

They also succeeded, as recently as January, in liberating Liverpool of one of their biggest assets with the signing of Philippe Coutinho, who moved after a protracted transfer saga for a club-record €120m fee.

You imagine that Salah, having found the net more than 40 times this season, would cost considerably more than that, particularly if he overcomes his suspected shoulder injury to compete in the World Cup, a stage which traditionally adds another few quid onto your price-tag.

Another potential fear is that he's fundamentally too similar in style to Messi for the pair to co-exist on the same team. They both seem to demand the ball 100% of the time, so how on Earth would their teammates decide which one to give it to?

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