Never short of an opinion or two, Palmeiras’ Felipe Melo has weighed in with his thoughts of what it might be like to face Barcelona in 2020/21.
The former Juventus hard man has assumed that both Lautaro Martinez and Neymar will sign for the Catalans, complementing Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi.
That would mean there would be no room for Ousmane Dembele, Philippe Coutinho and Antoine Griezmann of course.
“I know him (Lautaro),” Melo told Ole, cited by Sport.
“He is a player who, in addition to working hard, works hard without the ball, steals, fights and scores many goals. For me he will be the future striker of world football.
“I am very curious to see how Lautaro will play in Barcelona. Imagine joining a striker of this quality to Suarez, Messi and Neymar. They would be practically unstoppable.”
Given that the coronavirus pandemic is likely to have decimated clubs financially and not just the sporting calendar, it seems unlikely that Barca will be able to secure the signatures of both players and pay them the wages that their obvious talents demand.
At just 22 years of age, Lautaro has years ahead of him in which to improve, and will arguably be a great replacement for Suarez in the centre-forward position in the longer term.
Neymar, whilst understanding exactly what it means to play for Barca, might well slot back into the role he played so well until 2017 but he isn’t the target man that the Catalans desperately need, even if Messi would like to get the band back together.