With Thomas Vermaelen now joining Samuel Umtiti in the list of injured centre-backs at Barcelona, it is no surprise that Ernesto Valverde has urged the sporting leaders to bring in new defender in the winter market.
The front page of Sport claims ‘transfer in 24 hours’ as the La Liga winners are now negotiating for the signing of two players – Chelsea’s Andreas Christensen and Jeison Murillo of Valencia and one of the two ‘will sign’ for the Blaugrana in the next few hours.
It’s explained in the Catalan newspaper the Blues defender is an ‘absolute priority’ and has received the backing of the leaders of the Spanish champions for his transfer.
The 22-year-old is desperate to get out of Stamford Bridge and will make one last attempt to push for a move as his dream is to play for the European giants.
Barcelona are planning to take him on a loan deal for €3m and an option to buy the defender for €40m next summer, but the negotiations with the west London club have been ‘very, very complicated’.
If Barca fail to sign the Danish international, then they will turn their attention towards the 26-year-old, with whom they have already negotiated on Wednesday, but are yet to have ‘consensus’ with Los Che.
Murillo is not included in Marcelino’s plans and it will be easy for Valverde’s side to bring him to the club as they are looking to sign him on loan for six months and without an option to buy.
Thus, the report mentions it will be easy for Barcelona to negotiate with Valencia for the Colombian and his agent has already travelled to Spain as his intention is to close the deal as soon as possible.
If it’s not Christensen, then it will be Murillo for the Camp Nou outfit as the latter emerged as a target earlier this week.
Sport are confident that there will soon be white smoke at the club because either of the two will arrive at Camp Nou in the coming days.
