Barcelona director of football Deco has decided to focus his efforts on a deal for Everton midfielder Amadou Onana as he seeks a new midfielder for next season.
That’s according to Sport, who say Deco has ‘made the decision’ that the midfielder is the man that he wants to sign this summer.
He believes the Belgian midfielder can add ‘greater consistency’ to the team moving forwards and considers a deal for him as key moving forwards.
He had been in disagreement with manager Xavi over their transfer direction but with him now departing, Deco has decided to move forward with his plans and has already contacted the interested parties to try and get a transfer started.
The big problem at this point is the price that Everton will put on the Belgian. They paid €35m to sign him from Lille and they now want to at least double their investment, having already requested €60m when Arsenal and Chelsea enquired about him.
That means Deco is starting on the back foot as such a figure is not one that Barcelona can afford at this moment in time, with their finances tight and them also limited by Financial Fair Play.
To carry out such a deal would require the sale of players, a potential slow process with no guaranteed success at the end of it. Thus, Deco has set a limit of €40m on any deal for the Everton man.
He has ‘already guaranteed’ he will submit an offer for him at that price if a deal is possible but that doesn’t seem to be an easy task given Everton’s asking price is €60m minimum.
