Barcelona sporting director Robert Fernandez has been busy in the past few weeks, reportedly watching players in Germany, England and Russia. Rumours come up daily linking players with the Catalan club, but an appearance by Fernandez is a much better indication of who the club is keeping close tabs on.
The names that have popped up include several players 21-years-old or younger, including RB Leipzig’s German striker Timo Werner and French centre-back Dayot Upamecano, Tottenham’s English midfielder Harry Winks and CSKA Moscow’s Russian midfielder Aleksandr Golovin.
Players such as these may cost a pretty penny and in the cases of Werner, Golovin and potentially Winks, the World Cup may exacerbate that price tag even higher. Winks in particular is rumoured to be nicknamed ‘Little Iniesta’ by Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino, and following up a successful Champions League campaign including a 3-1 win over Real Madrid with a role in England’s World Cup campaign may push Winks out of Barcelona’s reach.
In addition, the inflated market from the summer may still plague Barcelona as other clubs are still aware that the club have some funds remaining from the sale of Neymar and potential sales of Rafinha or Arda Turan could bring in additional spending money. The Catalan club is well-known for being very selective in the style of player that they bring into the squad and that gives opposing teams some extra leverage in increasing their valuations of their own players.
Nevertheless, there is an argument to be made for bringing young depth to the club in the January transfer window or potentially even setting up preparations for the summer. Yet, with La Masia again producing talents seemingly ready for the first team such as Carles Alena, Jose Arnáiz and Marc Cucurella, it makes the decisions for the board that much more complicated.
Francesc and Dan talked about striking the right balance between promoting homegrown La Masia talent or investing heavily to attract the most talented youngsters outside of the club’s youth system. Listen now:
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