After the recent signing of Ferrán Torres, Xavi Hernández has surprised more than one with his new request to reinforce Barcelona’s attack: it is Álvaro Morata. As soon as he took the reins of the team, the Spanish coach requested the signing of Ferran and a 9 that seemed to be Edinson Cavani. But the option of the Spanish forward is at the moment the one that has more force.
Morata is the number 1 candidate for Xavi who wants to incorporate him into this market, not as an emergency solution but to be the team’s offensive benchmark in the coming seasons. And despite the complexity of the operation, the negotiations would already be well advanced, according to reports from the newspaper ACE. The striker is currently on loan to Juventus in Turin by Atlético de Madrid, so the operation involves three clubs, although Barcelona are confident that he will succeed thanks, in part, to Antoine Griezmann.
The French player is on loan to Atleti, which has a mandatory purchase option of 40 million euros, so Barcelona intends to negotiate with that, and that the rojiblanco club values the transfer of Morata also at 40 million so that it does not have to owe you nothing.
From the aforementioned media they point out that Xavi put him in contact with the player to test his possible incorporation and Morata would have told him that he is not comfortable in a Juventus where he is not performing as in his first stage and would welcome his signing for him Barcelona. In fact, the Bianconero club is also looking for a striker for this season and they have no intention of executing the purchase option they have for Morata at the end of the season since their financial situation is also delicate.
It seems that the operation would be beneficial for all parties: Juventus would save paying those almost 40 million euros for Morata, and Barça and Atleti would be in a draw, one with Morata and the other with Griezmann without having to pay larger amounts.
And if they finally reach an agreement between clubs and with the player, Barcelona would find the same problem as in recent years: the wage bill. The Barça team has to release players and lower salaries in order to register their new recruits without exceeding the limits of Financial Fair Play. In fact, last summer he already had problems registering the reinforcements and with Messi they could not even do so.
If Barcelona manages to release players this winter, the operation for Morata could go ahead, otherwise Barça would have to delay it until the next market.
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