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Barcelona hold-back on massive signing triggering Real Madrid’s interest

By Nishant Narayanan

(L-R) Clement Lenget of FC Barcelona, Lautaro Martinez of FC Internazionale and Jean-Clair Todibo of FC Barcelona. (Photo by Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images)
(L-R) Clement Lenget of FC Barcelona, Lautaro Martinez of FC Internazionale and Jean-Clair Todibo of FC Barcelona. (Photo by Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images) /
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Barcelona holding back on their summer signing triggers Real’s interest.

Barcelona have been closing in on the signing of Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez with reports confirming that they have reached an agreement on the player’s personal terms.

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The issue the Catalan side face is convincing the Italian side to accept a player exchange in return as they cannot afford to pay the 111 million euros asking price in cash. Barca are hoping to provide Inter’s desired player in order to reduce the Lautaro’s price tag to roughly 70m.

Initially, there was an agreement between the two sides that Arturo Vidal will be moving to San Siro this summer but that has been rejected by the Nerazzurri quoting Vidal’s age as the factor.

Blaugrana’s next attempt was to construct an elaborate plan of providing Inter with their desired left-back, Manchester City’s Joao Cancelo, by trading Cancelo for their very own Nelson Semedo.

The issue here is that Inter’s sporting director recently claimed to not want any player exchange deals to be attached to Lautaro and wants the 111m asking price to be paid in cash.

Reports state that Barca’s latest offer to the Italian giants was 70m in cash while providing Junior Firpo as an add-on. Firpo is believed to be costing around 41m euros, bringing the total to the 111m mark. It was reported that Inter may accept this offer if the cash amount is increased to 90m instead.

While the transfer is being negotiated between the two sides, Barca has another issue of balances their finances before the end of this month. Their initial plan of making 150m in incomes was crushed by the arrival of the COVID-19 crisis.

Club president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, is now asking the players to prepare another salary cut that will come to effect next season to help afford their summer transfer targets along with managing their financial situation.

This could prove to be a fatal idea as players might find it troubling to accept pay cut just to witness the club spend 100 million to secure Lautaro. These constant delays and uncertainties in securing Lautaro have triggered Real Madrid’s interest in hijacking the deal.

Meanwhile, Manchester United have also been in discussion with Lautaro’s agent as they are in the market for a new striker. Liverpool’s latest failure to secure Timo Werner might also bring them closer to Lautaro but their claim of rejecting Werner due to their financial struggles means they might not enter the race at all.

Next. 6 players shortlisted by Barcelona as their new left-back. dark

Lautaro’s deal is causing a lot of issues for Barca and it seems probable that his move to Camp Nou will trigger more issues than it would solve. Should Barca continue their chase of the Argentine striker?

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