It seems the Bundesliga is a market that Barcelona wish to explore, as officials Robert Fernandez and Urbano Ortega were on a scouting mission at the weekend.
Barcelona were active in the summer transfer market, as aside from having to replace Neymar, they added the likes of Paulinho and Nelson Semedo to the squad along with Ousmane Dembele.
With a number of club stalwarts such as Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, Javier Mascherano, Andres Iniesta and Luis Suarez all approaching, or on the wrong side of 30 already, a new cycle will have to be opened sooner rather than later.
In turn, it’s interesting to see that the three players that Barcelona are linked with watching at the weekend in Jonathan Tah, Leon Bailey and Julian Brandt are aged 21, 20 and 21 respectively. Sport note that it will take €30m+ to prise Brandt away from Bayer Leverkusen and a further €25m for Tah as they also shared an image of Fernandez and Ortega at the Leverkusen-Wolfsburg game.
The above is not to say that the likes of Pique, Busquets and Suarez still don’t have plenty left to offer the club, as they will feel as though they have an important role to play for several more years.
However, Barca will have to plan for the future as these individuals can’t go on forever at the highest level, and the sensible strategy would be to have ready-made replacements in line to step in rather than lose these key icons and then have to scramble to put together a new squad.
As a result, even though the report doesn’t suggest that any bids have been lodged or offers are imminent, the fact that Barcelona are out looking at these young players suggests that they’ve got the right approach and will swoop in due course if they consider their targets capable of stepping up and flourishing at the Nou Camp.