On Sunday, we covered a report from Spain which explained Ferran Torres and his advisors had been left confused at leaks of an offer from Newcastle United last week.
It didn’t really matter whether the Magpies offer was real or not, because it felt like it was being leaked from Barcelona sources to open up doubt around the player’s future.
Barcelona will want to sell several of their squad this summer, and Torres has been mentioned as a possibility before. Building up public pressure against players isn’t something alien to the Catalan media… as Frenkie de Jong and others can attest.
West Ham United have since been dragged in, but this time by the UK media. The Sunday Express reported West Ham, Aston Villa, Newcastle and Tottenham are among Premier League clubs keen as Barcelona look to sell the player for €30m this summer.
Mundo Deportivo specifically pick out West Ham and make it clear Torres isn’t keen on a move to there or Newcastle this summer. Indeed, he doesn’t want to go anywhere.
The Catalan newspaper talk it up, saying West Ham ‘insist’ on the signing, when that absolutely wasn’t said in the original report.
Again, this looks like another effort to build the narrative of a potential Torres exit.
