Following Antoine Griezmann’s decision to announce that he will be staying at Atletico Madrid, Barcelona have been considering alternative targets with our own Christian Eriksen said to be at the top of their list.
Although the two players are not similar in the slightest, the flexibility of record signing Philippe Coutinho means he will now be utilised further forward rather than as Andre Iniesta’s replacement as planned.
That means that Barca are on the lookout for a playmaker like our no.23. Catalan publication Sport reported this morning that the Dane is their preferred choice.
However, the paper has almost immediately dismissed the possibility of signing him. Daniel Levy has reported put a €225m (£196m) price tag on Eriksen’s head.
In the past, such a sizeable asking price hasn’t put off the La Liga champions from pursuing a player if they really wanted them. The £142m capture of Philippe Coutinho took two transfer windows and endless columns written in the Catalan city’s sports newspapers to come to fruition.
Usually, when Barcelona set their sights on someone, a number of things tend to happen. Endless newspaper articles, former players speaking publicly about the player, ex-team-mates trying to get them to move. Once the target is then primed, they then make an offer.
One key difference though is the people they were negotiating with. In Coutinho’s case, Liverpool had already sold Luis Suarez to Barca before and were again prepared to negotiate. The Spanish champions have never dealt with Mr Levy, and when Sport revealed the price tag in their article, there wasn’t even a hint of it being negotiated down. Our chairman has a reputation that precedes himself.
Of course, that isn’t the only thing keeping Barcelona away. As we saw with Ousmane Dembele, when Borussia Dortmund were extremely reluctant to sell, money talks with the Frenchman leaving for £135m. This time, the La Liga side don’t have that sort of ammunition. We know that, and the price tag has been clearly set in order to ensure no protracted transfer saga comes to pass.