Ownership confusion makes potential Watford transfer slightly harder, decision by next week

On Tuesday, we covered an article in Marca regarding the future of Juanfran, currently at Deportivo and formerly of Watford.

The 28-year-old was apparently a target for Barcelona as an emergency right-back following Aleix Vidal’s injury, and Marca, who were relaying TV3, claimed the player ‘belonged’ to Deportivo, but Watford retained an option on him.

However, on Wednesday, the Spanish website appears to have changed their tune a little bit, now stating Juanfran is still a Watford player, and is on loan at Deportivo until the end of the season.

This changes things considerably, as Barcelona would now have to negotiate with the Hornets rather than Deportivo, which ‘limits their influence’ over potential negotiations.

As part of the deal taking Juanfran to Spain, Watford included an €1m option to buy the right-back, and the Premier League side would be ‘keen’ to sell him now, as they could end up getting more, seeing as he has a release clause worth €8m.

Barcelona, on the other hand, are happy to use this seeming urgency from the Hornets to try and negotiate the deal a bit more and see if they could sign him for a lower price.

As things stand, though, the La Liga giants are waiting to see whether or not they will still be in a title race by next week before they make a decision.

If Real Madrid were to slip up against either Valencia or Villarreal and Barcelona win at the weekend, they would go ahead with the transfer as the expenditure would be justified.

A lot of ifs and buts, and it seems Juanfran’s future now rests on whether or not Cristiano Ronaldo and co. can find the back of the net over the next week or so.