The Transfer Plans for Building a New Barcelona Squad

There are several players who they’re working to sign.

While Barcelona are set to win this season’s LaLiga Santander title, the directors at the Camp Nou are already looking beyond this campaign and to the future.

Director of football Mateu Alemany has promised an interesting summer, as he and his colleagues work on improving the squad for next season and beyond.

Here, below, comes a look at the various decisions that Barcelona must take over the coming weeks and months as they plan for the short term and long term.

The dream of a Messi return

While Barcelona are working on various new signings, the big name is Lionel Messi as there is a chance the Argentine could return.

The Catalan club have been working on this for some time and believe they can pull it off, even if they still need to make space in the wage bill to meet LaLiga’s financial requirements.

The definitive economic offer has yet to be made to Messi, while the sporting implications of this still need to be worked out too.

So, this possibility is still very complicated and needs to be worked out.

Inigo Martinez is close to joining

One player who is much closer to joining the Blaugrana is Inigo Martinez, the Athletic Club centre-back.

He is the main candidate to boost the defence and he seems to be willing to join on a free transfer when his contract in Bilbao expires in June.

Xavi wants Gundogan

Another player who Xavi wants to bring in is Ilkay Gundogan, but here there is more work to be done.

Barcelona don’t yet have the player’s agreement, even though he will also become a free agent at the end of this season.

There are several other clubs who are interested, especially in the Premier League.

For now, he is fully focused on Manchester City’s final months of the season.

The return of Ez Abde

One interesting player for the Barcelona directors is Ez Abde, who is currently on loan at Osasuna and who has been having a good season.

He’ll return to Barcelona and stay in the squad unless a big offer from the Premier League comes in.

Strengthening the attack

As for strengthening the attack, there are two leading candidates and one of them is Vitor Roque, the Brazilian at Athletico Paranaense who Barcelona have been following for some time. But, they’re not the only interested suitor.

The other option would be Yannick Carrasco, with the Blaugrana already possessing an option to sign the Belgian for 20m euros, something negotiated during the Antoine Griezmann transfer.