After struggling for minutes at Valencia, Barcelona took Jeison Murillo on loan until the end of the season.
Prior to signing the Colombian, Andreas Christensen of Chelsea was the priority target in January and the La Liga winners were willing to take him on loan with an option to buy next summer.
Catalan newspaper Sport has an update on why the deal for the Danish international didn’t take shape, even though he was keen on making a switch to Spain in the winter market.
The Blues defender’s agent travelled twice to meet the leaders of the Blaugrana and urged them to wait as he was trying to convince the Premier League outfit to sanction his client’s transfer.
Christensen’s representative was even preparing a final strategy to help him join Barca and there was a ‘summit’ before the South American’s name was floated.
Having not featured regularly under Maurizio Sarri, the 22-year-old wanted another club and therefore, the player in person ‘asked to leave’ the west London club, but Chelsea blocked his transfer by closing the door.
For this reason, Ernesto Valverde’s side went ahead with Murillo’s signing, but they have so far maintained a good relationship with the Chelsea centre-half’s agent as Christensen has made it clear that he would like to play for Barcelona in the future.
Sport mentions Chelsea want €40m to sanction his sale.