Barcelona appear to be focusing all of their efforts on strengthening in the final third this summer, a theme that has followed much of the talk around their potential activity this season. That looks as if it will be the case with Manchester City defender Josko Gvardiol too.
In April, it looked as if Barcelona would move for Alessandro Bastoni, but the deal broke down due to doubts about his fit from Hansi Flick. The Blaugrana have also been linked with Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella and Inter’s Denzel Dumfries, before he sealed a move to Real Madrid, but all of their interest in defenders appears to be on the backburner.
Barcelona cool interest in Josko Gvardiol
The Croatian defender has left his future open, with two years remaining on his contract at City, and links to Real Madrid, but in recent days, Barcelona too. Yet Alex Pintanel reports that while there is a genuine interest from Barcelona, he will only become a serious option if there are departures in Barcelona’s backline, and even if that were to come to pass, they would not spend large on Gvardiol. Sport say that City have now opened negotiations over a new deal with Gvardiol, and that as a result, Barcelona’s interest in him has cooled.
Barcelona looking for reinforcements across backline
There appears to be no particular position that Barcelona are keen to strengthen at the back, as suggested by the links above. By the same token, it looks as if Barcelona will listen to offers for the majority of their defenders, and will then act accordingly to replace any player that leaves with one of the names on their shortlist.
