Chelsea join race for Barcelona target Ivan Fresneda

Barcelona are restricted by the financial fair play regulations enforced by La Liga, and as much the transfer market has been one of patience and inactivity. The La Liga champions did most of their work early with the signings of Inigo Martinez and ilkay Gundogan on free transfers, and Oriol Romeu for a small fee. Now they’re looking to finish strong, but if they want Ivan Fresneda, they may need to act fast. English side Chelsea have now been linked with a move for the young right-back.

According to ESPN, Chelsea is now looking at Fresneda as a potential replacement for injured Reece James. Fresneda has been consistently linked with Barcelona over the summer, with the Catalan giants having an €18 million bid turned down by Valladolid, who were relegated to the Segunda division last year.

The risk for Barcelona is that they could lose Fresneda due to their indecisiveness in the transfer market.

As has been reported several times this summer, there is a disagreement within the management team in relation to who should be prioritised to fill the right-back spot with Barcelona.

Manager Xavi prefers the experience of Joao Cancelo, and that deal is moving forward. But Deco has consistently banged the table for Fresneda, believing him to be one of the most promising young defenders in Europe.

Now it’s believed that Deco has given Jorge Mendes, the agent of Cancelo a timeframe to get the deal done. Realising that he risks losing out on other targets if Barca wait up until the deadline for Cancelo, only to see the deal fall through. As we’ve seen with Barcelona’s pursuit of Bernardo Silva.

The good news is that whatever happens in the Cancelo/Fresneda pursuit, it will be wrapped up in just a couple of weeks. Unfortuntaely for Barcelona, they’re going to have to manage with a makeshift backline until then, especially with Ronald Araujo now injured.