Clement Lenglet & Giovani Lo Celso on the agenda for Joan Gamper Game

Sometimes a game is more than a game, especially when it’s a friendly in August. Tonight Barcelona will host Tottenham Hotspurs for the annual Joan Gamper Trophy. While everyone is focused on the game, with the transfer market still in full swing, there will be a couple of names on the agenda for both teams.

One name that won’t be in attendance is England star striker Harry Kane. The Spurs hitman didn’t travel to Barcelona today for the match after playing at the weekend. Bayern Munich is still negotiating his transfer, so despite Spurs confirming that this has everything to do with maintenance ahead of the new season, it won’t stop the rumour mill turning.

Clement Lenglet

The first name on the agenda will be that of Clement Lenglet, the Barca defender who spent the 2022-23 season on loan in North London with Spurs.

It’s widely expected that he will leave this summer and Lenglet’s preference is to head back to Spurs. The problem is that Tottenham and Barcelona are far apart in terms of valuation.

The matter has been complicated for Spurs with an increase in reported interest from teams like Juventus, AC Milan and Marseille.

The sporting directors will use the time tonight to get together and try and reach a compromise that is beneficial for both teams, although Daniel Levy is not renowned for being someone willing to compromise.

Lenglet has failed to feature in any game this pre-season and it’s expected that he’ll sit out again tonight to avoid the risk of injury.

Giovani Lo Celso

Lo Celso’s name appeared in another report today on Mundo Deportivo, linking the attacking midfielder with a move to Barcelona.

MD explained that Bernardo Silva is still the priority, but if that transfer proves to be impossible, which is how it looks right now, then Barca will move onto some alternative options…one of which is Lo Celso.

I don’t really understand the link with Lo Celso. He was very good at Real Betis, but that was back in 2018/19.

He really didn’t stand out at Villareal last year, scoring just twice and assisting 3 goals in 22 La Liga matches.

Although he’s extremely tidy on the ball, I’m not sure he offers anything to this Barca side that someone like Fermin Lopez doesn’t. Surely it would make more sense to develop the talent in-house and save the transfer fee and wage demands of the Argentinian forward.