There are plenty of Barcelona fans who feel the club’s best goalkeeper as last season ended was 33 year old Claudio Bravo.
But there’s no absolute guarantee of that and in the here and now – Bravo had an awful lot of backing to be Barcelona’s first choice goalkeeper.
Therefore the sale of the player obviously raised eyebrows with some fans, as did the relatively low fee (€16m to €20m, depending on who you want to believe).
Barcelona’s Robert Fernandez has been quoted by Catalan newspaper Mundo Deportivo as saying: “Bravo had two years left on his contract, this season and next. That means that within a year and a half he was a free agent and could negotiate with whom he wanted, and he raised his desire to take the offer he had.”
And that, as far as Barcelona are concerned, is that. This is all likely to be dragged up again, if and when Ter Stegen makes any high profile mistakes this season.