The desire of FC Barcelona to incorporate top-level acquisitions in certain positions before the end of the summer transfer window remains no secret.
Among the positions that the Catalan outfit wishes to prioritize an arrival in is the right-back position, one that Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez considers fundamental to his plans.
Despite there being several players that Barcelona have considered recruiting over the summer, there is one particular player from the English Premier League club Manchester City that continues to attract the interest of La Blaugrana.
The player in question is none other than 29-year-old Portuguese fullback Joao Cancelo. The right-footed former Juventus player has been the priority target for Xavi since quite a while this summer, and with negotiations underway to bring him over to Barcelona, the Catalan giants wish to wrap up the operation.
However, as per a recent update provided by SPORT, Barcelona do not wish for this operation to linger any longer than it should, and decisive hours for it are coming up ahead as the Catalans hope to wrap it up this week.
According to the report, the player’s agent Jorge Mendes, who continues to have good relations within Barcelona and has direct contacts with Manchester City, will look to mediate a possible agreement between both clubs for his Portuguese client.
Being fully aware of the limits that the Catalans are willing to go up to, the agent will be doing his best to unblock any potential hurdles with Manchester City and looking to finalize the feasibility of the operation within the coming hours.
Mendes has previously assured Barcelona that their offer would be sufficient and given Cancelo’s willingness to even reduce his salary demand, Barcelona remain assured that a possible agreement seems imminent despite obvious differences.
Given City’s tendency to be quite protective of their assets, it will be a tough negotiation nonetheless as the Citizens would ideally prefer a direct purchase rather than loaning their player out, while Barcelona wish for a loan deal with a feasible amount attached as the purchase option fee, and they hope to finalize the agreement this week as mentioned before.
An alternative to Cancelo remains Fresneda, for whom Barcelona already have had a bid rejected by Real Valladolid and reportedly are working on a new hypothetical bid for the player in the scenario that the Cancelo operation is not wrapped up soon so that Barcelona have a fall back option.
