Barcelona star to treble his wages with deal to be confirmed on Sunday

Posted by

On the face of it it’s one of the more bizarre transfers of the summer window, and even though Arthur Melo appeared to be happy at the Camp Nou, being able to treble his current salary at Juventus seems to have swung the deal.

According to Sport, Melo will be announced as a Juventus player on Sunday, after flying to Italy once Barcelona’s game against Celta has concluded.

Miralem Pjanic, seven years his contemporary’s senior, is expected to go in the opposite direction, with Sport suggesting that he will cost the Catalans €60m, as opposed to Arthur’s €70m fee to the Italian champions-elect.

If Barca coach, Quique Setien, wanted to hold onto the player, then he appeared to go about it completely the wrong way in his press conference on Friday.

“Maybe he lacked a little continuity,” he said, reported by Goal.com.

“It is not easy to change things in a footballer that other coaches told him were very good. When they tell him it is very good to keep the ball and we come and we want to play two touches, it is difficult.”

If anything, that type of sentiment is more than likely to see the player out of the door in double quick time rather than begging to stay put.

All in all, the publicity surrounding the deal has been another own goal from Barcelona, who seem to stumble from one PR disaster to another.

More Stories Arthur Melo Quique Setien