Manchester City have ‘lowered their demands’ for Ferran Torres, making a deal with Barcelona far easier to achieve.
That’s according to Sport, who say that the ‘intense talks’ between the two clubs for the Spanish striker are starting to yield results.
Torres has emerged as a target for Barcelona over the last few weeks, with him one of several options they are looking at to improve their forward line, which has been beset by injuries.
Money is the major problem, though, with the Catalan giants amid a financial crisis and limited in what they can do.
The two clubs have been working on a deal for a while, with club chief Mateu Alemany even recently travelling to Manchester for talks with those in charge at the Etihad.
Earlier today it was reported that conversations between the two clubs were being stepped up after Barcelona were knocked out of the Champions League last night, and it appears that is definitely the case.
Sport say that the two clubs are ‘still negotiating’ over Torres, who is now the ‘main objective’ for Barcelona in the January transfer window.
There’s still a distance between the two parties, but Manchester City have ‘lowered their economic demands’, and Barcelona are willing to ‘raise their initial offer’ to make the difference between them much smaller than it initially was.
Initially, City had demanded €70m, while Barcelona offered €35m fixed, a big difference to say the least. That, though, has now been ‘shortened’.
Manchester City have now dropped their asking price by €10m to €60m, and Barcelona are going to raise theirs by the same amount to €45m. Thus the difference between them is now ‘only €15m.’
This is where ‘variables’ can come into the mix as they can make up the difference, and Barcelona are willing to pay various clauses depending on the player’s personal and collective achievements at the Nou Camp.
Manchester City would prefer these to be ‘easier to achieve’ so they are guaranteed the €15m.
The way they will pay for Torres will only be discussed once an ‘economic agreement’ has been reached but talk of timing has ‘already begun’.
The big problem for Barcelona is that Manchester City want as much money as possible from the deal upfront so that they can go to the market immediately and sign a replacement.
They want the first payment to be a ‘powerful’ one as they are also slightly limited by Financial Fair Play, but Barcelona are looking for more ‘flexible terms’ with payments in instalments and a low first instalment.
That could change if they manage to get rid of a big earner in January, though.
Either way, they are working on the deal with their counterparts at the Etihad and there have been ‘small steps forward’ in that regard.
