It’s incredible that reports can emerge that a club and a player have reached an agreement before a fee has been agreed with the selling club, as that sounds like a quite literal description of tapping up.
Stories have been circulating for a while about Barcelona and Lautaro Martinez, and this report from Cope suggests there has been a serious breakthrough.
They state that Barcelona have reached an agreement with the Argentine striker for him to move to The Nou Camp next season, with the prospect of playing with Lionel Messi proving to be a huge draw.
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That’s not to say the transfer is close to happening, as it sounds like Inter Milan have yet to see a package that will convince them to sell.
They go on to say that Barcelona will need to pay a fee and there’s a possibility that one or two players may move in the opposite direction.
The potential players are listed as Nelson Semedo, Junior Firpo, Ivan Rakitic and Samuel Umtiti, but it’s not clear who would want to leave and who Inter may be interested in.
Things could be more complicated as seasons could be extended and it’s not actually clear when the transfer window will open.
It’s a small piece of good news for Barca as it’s clear the player wants to move, but coming up with a package that would convince Inter to let him go was always going to be the tricky part – and they still need to figure that part out.