Barcelona will ‘evaluate’ Raphinha in the summer, with a potential return to the Premier League on the cards as he is ‘struggling to reach the level’ of his time at Leeds United at the Nou Camp.
That’s according to Sport, who cover the player today and Blaugrana’s hopes that he will start to prove worth the investment they made on him in the summer.
They explain that after being one the ‘highest investments’ in the summer rebuild at the club, there was high expectations and hopes placed on the Brazilian.
However, the club have begun to ‘get impatient’ with the former Leeds star after an ‘irregular start’ to the season and his ‘discreet performance’ at the World Cup.
The coaching staff are hopeful that once he has adapted, he will ‘take off’ in the decisive part of the season but that will not stop assessments being made at the end of the campaign as Barcelona ‘expect much more from him’.
Raphinha is yet to establish himself in the starting 11 since his move from Leeds, losing out in a direct battle with Ousmane Dembélé for the spot on the right-wing.
The club had expected his adaptation to life at the Nou Camp to be difficult despite his years in Europe because he had played for smaller teams where he was the star. That is not the case in Catalunya.
However, for the price that was paid for him he is yet to show that he ‘can make a difference’ and the coaches are demanding more from him than he can deliver.
Barcelona are concerned about the ‘lack of joy’ from the player, who they think has ‘faded away’ since arriving from Leeds in the summer.
Thus, they will assess the situation next summer because they know the player is one with a ‘huge market in the Premier League’.
The idea is for him to settle and become a key part of the squad but if he does not explode between now and June the club will have a major dilemma, one that they could solve by selling him back to the Premier League.
