Barcelona did add an important signing for the future in Eric Garcia this summer, but there’s still room for someone currently in their prime to improve the defence.
Clement Lenglet makes too many errors and Gerard Pique is on his last legs, while it’s clear that Samuel Umtiti isn’t going to get a proper chance to establish himself in the side either.
A report from Sport has actually indicated that a struggle to offload Umtiti is making it difficult to make new signings just now, and it’s one of the main reasons why a move for Man City defender Aymeric Laporte isn’t possible.
It appears that their hopes of making the move happen did rest with trying to offload Umtiti and Lenglet, while there was also a plan to try and include Sergi Roberto in a potential swap deal with City to try and sign the centre back.
City don’t really need to sell him so it was always going to be a tough move to pull off, while Roberto isn’t enough on his own to tempt them to sell so a decent amount of cash would be needed too.
It still sounds like Barca want to add another defender, but it will take some patience and they are looking at potentially cheaper options for the position.