Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal face paying record fee for Ansu Fati
Barcelona boss Xavi has come out and said that Ansu Fati is not for sale, but sometimes financial needs must. Any outgoings this summer will be against the backdrop of Barcelona’s need to cut their wage bill by €150-200m or bring in significant income. Fati is by no means one the highest earners at the club, but he’s still on an excellent wage and a young and talented forward who will command a healthy fee.
Clubs from the Premier League have made contact on the player’s side, which is also why Barcelona are distancing themselves from the speculation because they are not the ones involved in any talks yet. It’s very plausible that Fati could cost somewhere in the region of €100m, which would be a club-record for many of the suitors interested and a big price compared to his form right now. A series of knee injuries seem to have affected his overall development. But Fati has still got all of the attributes to add goals, dynamism, creativity and versatility to either Barcelona or whatever club he moves on to next. For now, the player simply craves consistent game time. Last season he scored four goals in ten LaLiga games. This campaign he’s played 20 matches but only added three goals and hasn’t had as many minutes as he would have liked. Plus there’s massive pressure wearing the No.10 shirt at Barcelona and Fati hasn’t been as clinical or explosive as many predicted.
So although Xavi has made it clear Barcelona are not entertaining a sale, the board are going to have to look at the numbers should offers become concrete since a clearout this summer may still be needed. The last thing Barcelona want is to fall back into the perils of last summer when they had to consistently find cash injections by activating so-called ‘levers’ in order to go on a spending spree whilst remaining within very strict LaLiga rules.
In terms of outgoings, it is more likely players like Sergio…
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