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Up until a short time ago, the Catalan media were using Super Deporte as the basis for their claims on Bruno Fernandes to Barcelona.

The Sporting midfielder has been strongly linked with a move to Manchester United this month, and this morning’s Portuguese newspapers suggested today could see serious developments.

They weren’t wrong, but the developments haven’t been as expected. Sport, a Catalan newspaper, now has a run down on how Bruno has been edged away from Manchester United and towards Barcelona, at least as they see it.

Barca are trying to sign Rodrigo from Valencia, needing a striker given Luis Suarez’s injury. However, the club want a loan and don’t want to guarantee they’ll buy the player in the summer.

Jorge Mendes then arrived in Barcelona to unblock the situation, and pulled out the ‘trick of Bruno Fernandes’.

According to the claims, the Blaugrana have been considering Bruno for the summer anyway, but first need to see the back of some midfielders.

They also don’t want to spend a lot of money this month, so it’s claimed Sporting would agree to sell Bruno and let Barca pay in instalments, with the first being relatively low.

To cover this first payment to the Lisbon club, Barca would sell Carles Perez, who has been linked with AS Roma.

Valencia would then be able to have Bruno on loan, Rodrigo would go the other way on loan without a mandatory option, and everyone would be happy apart from Manchester United.

That’s the situation according to Sport.

Over in Portugal, Record and RTP, the latter being a public service broadcaster, both say there are talks taking place over Bruno Fernandes to Barcelona.

RTP put the potential transfer fee at €60m.