With the summer transfer window approaching an end at the conclusion of this month, FC Barcelona are still in the market to further strengthen their squad. The club is looking primarily for a right-back and an attacking midfielder.
The attacking midfielder that Xavi dreams to bring to Camp Nou is the Manchester City ace, Bernardo Silva. According to SPORT, both Xavi and Silva himself want the Portuguese to play at Barcelona from the next season, but Manchester City have made it clear that they will not hear any offers for the midfielder at any cost.
Manchester City will be particularly wary of losing any more players, especially those as important as Bernardo Silva, as they have already lost Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez this summer. However, the precedent at Manchester City indicates that the Citizens would not go to extreme lengths if the player himself wants to leave.
There have been a number of players who have left Manchester City in the last few seasons, without facing too much resistance from the Citizens. For instance, Leroy Sane left the club in 2020 for Bayern Munich for €49 million.
Similarly, Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling also both left City in the same transfer window in 2022, as the Brazilian joined Arsenal and the Englishman joined Chelsea. These two were highly important players for Pep Guardiola, but City respected their decision to leave and join another club.
There has been a similar case with Riyad Mahrez, who left this summer to join Al-Ahli. Mahrez had been an important component of the City team that conquered England and Europe during the last season. Zinchenko and Ferran Torres were also allowed to leave the club when a good offer came for them.
The club has also not even resisted the departure of young players with a very good potential. Jadon Sancho was allowed to leave for Borussia Dortmund, despite being chosen as the best U-17 player in Europe before his transfer. Brahim Diaz and Romeo Lavia were also allowed to leave when they wanted to.
Thus, while Manchester City do not seem too keen to part with Bernardo Silva, the English club’s past shows that they would not put in too much of a resistance if the player wants to leave. However, Barcelona would pay only up to €65 million for him, which is quite far from the €80 million that City value him at.
One way that Barcelona can get him this summer is by arranging a loan with an obligatory purchase option, but Silva himself will have to pressurize his club to accept an offer for this possibility to actually materialize.
