Today's edition of Catalan newspaper Sport has gone a bit transfer crazy. The front two pages are all about Barcelona wanting Fernando Torres and then they go on to fret about funds for a central defender, meaning their first choices of people like Thiago Silva and Mats Hummels are being replaced by players such as Daniel Agger, because they've spent so much on Neymar, with perhaps the full cost of that deal not truly known at this stage.
They need to raise funds and after talking of Barcelona's defensive woes, Sport go on to say that they are about to lose Thiago to an 'insisntant' Manchester United because the club have been careless on the technical side. There's anger that a situation has developed which could see the player leave for just €18m because of a clause in his contract. Sport don't seem to think the clause should have existed in the first place, and that once it was there then Barcelona should have made sure the terms were fulfilled, meaning he wouldn't be able to leave for such a cheap fee.
Thiago hasn't played the required number of games and such was Barcelona's La Liga dominace, they could have started him in nearly every match for the second half of the season with little worry, but he only got 15 league starts for the whole season and just one in the Champions League. Barcelona say that Manchester United will need to complete a deal by August 1st, or his buy-out clause will go up again to €90m and the club will resist any attempts to buy him.
None of this sounds like anything new, but the way they are reporting him as almost gone does. The English press caught up on the stories properly over the last few days but they've been in Spain for a few weeks now, Sport say that Barcelona stand to lose both Thiago and his brother Rafinha, who could be going to Celta Vigo. It's far more realistic than the Cesc Fabregas claims, with the Spain midfielder insisting he doesn't want to go and the club not wanting to sell him. They'd rather not sell Thiago either but due to the 'carelessness' of Barcelona with his contract, they may not have a choice in that.
Manchester United will need to add in midfield this summer and the capture of Thiago would be a welcome boost for Manchester United fans, who are still not sure what a future under David Moyes will look like. The signing of an exciting young attacking midfielder will certainly help to ease those doubts and it would be a nice scenario if the club were able to 'unveil' both men at the same time. Moyes is currently on holiday and doesn't officially start his job until July 1st, which is when he'll be presented at Old Trafford, that doesn't leave the club long to sort out a Thiago deal if they fancy wheeling him out at the same time.
No comments:
Post a Comment