It’s been said multiple times but it’s an absolute nightmare position for any club to allow a player to enter the final year of their contract.
The agent will be pushing for them to wait for free agency to see what’s on offer, while the club may have to overpay and make promises they otherwise wouldn’t to keep them.
The latest example of this comes from Barcelona with their talented midfielder Ilaix Moriba as ESPN report Barca are desperately trying to get him tied down to a new deal.
He’s widely expected to follow in the footsteps of Ansu Fati in making the leap towards being a star in the senior set-up, but things aren’t looking that promising just now.
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It’s reported that the chaos behind the scenes and upcoming Presidential elections is making it almost impossible to get anything done, while a lot of big clubs are now showing an interest in him so that could turn his head.
This could take an interesting twist if he starts demanding playing time in the first team to sign a new contract because he would be in a good position to do that, while success in the first team will just lead to more interest and a bigger salary demand from the player.
Barca still need to deal with Lionel Messi’s contract as their absolute priority, but they really need to get this sorted out too.