Lionel Messi asks for Europe’s most in-demand defender from Barcelona

The defensive line-up at Barcelona has been far from impressive in recent times and they have got some major holes to fill.

As per Don Balon, Barcelona ace Lionel Messi wants Milan Skriniar to check-in at Barcelona. This comes on the background of a number of valid reasons.

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First up is the Gerard Pique factor. The former Spain international is 33 at the moment and might very well leave next year. He has showed signs of slowing down and inconsistency and the second reason revolves around Sameul Umtiti who seems to be spending more time getting injured and staying on the sidelines than actually on the pitch.

Moreover, the recent buys at the Camp Nou suggest that the board is blindly purchasing players and dishing out huge chunks of their war-chest thus completing some fancy signings. Philippe Coutinho and Antoine Griezmann are two of the blunders that the board has committed in recent times and the lesser said about Ousmane Dembele, the better. The idea should be to spend little amounts on more number of players who are full of quality than do follow their failed policy.

The other options that the La Liga giants have at the moment are Matthijs dde Ligt and Kalidou Koulibaily. The former might just consider playing alongside Cristiano Ronaldo for a bit longer as Juventus look more than likely to give him more settling time, while the latter is a high value target sitting at over 100 million euros. Skriniar on the other hand is valued at 80 million euros which is likely to be brought down through negotiations or by the addition of Aturo Vidal in the deal.

Another player that the Blaugrana have been looking at is Leicester City’s Caglar Soyuncu who isn’t as experienced as Skriniar but has had a brilliant campaign with the Foxes nonetheless. The Slovak does intend to leave Inter Milan in the coming future and is also being chased down by the likes of Manchester United and Real Madrid, so it does look like Barcelona are going to face some stiff competition.

The Catalan giants should go ahead with the deal as they also intend to buy Lautaro Martinez who plays for the same team as Skriniar. Right now, both the team aren’t exactly on bad terms and it wouldn’t hurt if they started off on a lesser offer initially and then proceed to a bigger one, which the Nerazzurri are likely to demand.

However, it must be expected things to be slightly shaky than they appear to be given the Serie A side’s rigidity in negotiations and the Spanish outfit’s tight financial situation.

Barca need to replace Pique and find his replacement soon. Skriniar does seem to be the perfect candidate with his experience and flexible positioning on the field. It’s a no-brainer that Messi is eyeing him at the moment.