Real Betis plan raid for five Barcelona players

Real Betis are looking to sign five Barcelona players this summer, according to Ferran Martinez of Mundo Deportivo.

The Seville side finished last season in 6th place in La Liga, securing Europa League football for the 2023/24 season, and now they’re looking to strengthen their side.

The five players reported to be of interest by Martinez are Álex Collado, Nico González, Arnau Tenas, Abde Ezzalzouli and Pablo Torre.

All of the deals are at different stages according to the report, with Collado the closest to securing his move. Although Barcelona will reportedly secure a sell-on fee for any future sale.

Real Betis working on securing talented Barcelona stars

Collardo joined Barca’s youth team from Espanyol back in 2010 but has failed to break through into the first team, making just two appearances for the senior side. He had two different loan spells last year, first with Grenada and then with Elche. Having turned 24, it’s easy to see why Collardo would be open to a move to secure first-team football.

As per Martinez, Nico is attracted to the option of moving to Betis, but Barcelona will only sell the 21-year-old if manager Xavi signs off the deal.

He spent last year on loan at Valencia where he made 26 appearances, putting in a number of positive performances. Now he has the chance to secure regular football with Real Betis, which is a fine proposition for a young player.

Barca has already decided not to renew the contract of goalkeeper Arnau Tenas, and he is free to leave with his deal having expired at the end of June.

Martinez described the Abde deal as the most ‘difficult’. The talented Moroccan winger spent last season on loan at Osasuna and put in a number of impressive displays, scoring 4 times in 28 appearances.

He’s highly thought of at Barcelona and the Catalan giants may be reluctant to let him leave on a permanent transfer. If there is no route to first-team football this year, another loan deal could be on the cards.

Torre is an interesting case as he only arrived at Camp Nou last March in a €5 million deal with Racing Santander. Unfortunately for Torre, he spent much of last season watching from the sideline, making just 8 appearances for the senior side. The majority of those appearances were off the bench as cameos at the end of the game.

The best thing for Barcelona and Torre is if the young winger heads out on loan next year to improve his physicality and get some minutes under his belt.