Marcos Alonso, Barça’s priority objective. /
The culés are still pending Marcos Alonso and Azpilicueta, while the Londoners look with interest at the ‘Dembélé case’
Barcelona and Chelsea seem destined to understand each other in this summer transfer market, to date very stagnant. The culé team is still immersed in its plans to make a profound restructuring of the defensive plot and looks at the ‘blue’ team, where Christiansen, Marcos Alonso and César Azpilicueta await the definitive signal to wear the Blaugranas. Meanwhile, in London they are still pending the Dembélé soap opera and will wait for his resolution to cast their nets on a footballer who can be capital in their new project.
Xavi Hernández wants to cut to the chase at Barça’s defense. This is what the Tarrasa coach told Joan Laporta as soon as the season ended and he also communicated it to Gerard Piqué, a player who would go into the background. That decision entails the almost forced departure of players like Lenglet, Mingueza or Umtiti and the landing of new pieces that give the team the solidity they need to be competitive again with the great ocean liners of the Old Continent. That is where Chelsea appears, a team that at this moment has what Barça needs, reinforcements of guarantees that can be good, nice and cheap.
And it is that Chelsea is immersed in a deep remodeling that Barça can take advantage of to fish in troubled waters. The departure of Roman Abramóvich and the arrival of Todd Boehly, a tycoon with a fortune valued at 4,500 million dollars, make players like Christiansen, Azpilicueta, Marcos Alonso or Rudiger choose to abandon ship. The German has already set course for Real Madrid, the Dane already has an agreement with the Catalans and the other two footballers are the ones who have now become a priority objective for the entity chaired by Joan Laporta.
Marcos Alonso is an old dream of Barcelona. At the Camp Nou he likes his ability to be a decisive player in attack, his physical exuberance and his firm desire to play for the culé team. The journalist Fabrizio Romano assured on June 13 that Mateu Alemany already has the player’s yes and that now only the second part would be missing, negotiating with the English team. Chelsea has valued the Real Madrid youth squad at 13 million euros, a figure that Barça cannot assume until it activates the economic levers and an amount that the Blaugrana hope to reduce considerably throughout the transfer market.
The case of César Azpilicueta is different. The Navarrese defender likes Can Barça because they consider that he is a footballer who can bring his seniority to the block, his winning character and be a wild card for Xavi in the Blaugrana eleven. He can play as a centre-back, right-back and even as a left-winger, a lifesaver for the defense.
The former player from Osasuna and Olympique de Marseille ended his contract with Chelsea this summer but last year, at the age of 32, he once again met the minimum number of games played and automatically renewed his link with the ‘blues’ until June 2023. Chelsea He asks, as for Marcos Alonso, 13 million euros, an amount that Barça hopes will be lowered if the footballer reaches a friendly agreement with the new owners of the club.
The other wing of the plane that flies over the new air bridge between Barcelona and London is that of Ousmane Dembélé. The culés have met this same week with his agent, Moussa Sissoko, to put back on the table the offer that they had already presented to him for months. The proposal was not to the liking of the Mosquito representative and both the Blaugrana and Chelsea remain awaiting the final decision.
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Barça will not raise the offer and from London they rub their hands with a player who ends his contract this Thursday and must choose. According to the newspaper Sport, Chelsea has made an offer of ten million euros net per season, an amount similar to that presented at the Camp Nou. The ball is now in Dembélé’s court.
Barça looks at Chelsea and does so with one of Xavi’s most important requests in this market. The one from Tarrasa wants a squad in which he has a guaranteed substitute in all positions. He wants to double positions and that includes Busquets, who will have Kessié as an alternative, and Jordi Alba. The winger from Hospitalet finished physically very fair last season and at 33 years of him at the culé club they consider that it is time to lighten the load of matches. 44 games and almost 4,000 minutes are too many for a player who does not have a Plan B. Marcos Alonso is the main candidate on a list that also includes Javi Galán and José Gayá.
