Suggesting Barcelona could be interested in signing ageing Stoke defender Glen Johnson, Mundo Deportivo’s list of potential Barcelona targets for the right-back position wasn’t greeted positively by the English media.
Of course, they were looking at cheap options, but the reaction was that a club like Barcelona could be doing a lot better than a Stoke City defender.
Sport have given the same exercise a go, and the options presented are slightly more believable, and include two Premier League targets.
Number one, which is discarded straight away by the Catalan newspaper, is Hector Bellerin.
He’s too expensive and ready to sign a new contract at Arsenal.
The other one, and perhaps slightly more believable, is Southampton’s Cédric Soares.
The Euro 2016 winner, who was bought by Ronald Koeman last season for the Saints, is the kind of player you would expect the La Liga champions to be looking at.
Sport say Barcelona are following the 25-year-old’s progress in the Premier League, after Ariedo Braida, Barcelona’s director of sport, recommended him immediately upon arrival.
Currently injured until the end of the month, Soares had been an integral part of Claude Puel’s new look Southampton this season, making an appearance in all of the team’s first seven league games.
However, it’s highly doubtful the Premier League side will be wanting to sell their starting right-back (when fit), that easily.