Ronald Koeman’s Barcelona don’t officially start their league campaign for another week and a half, but there are still plenty of challenges for the Dutchman in the meantime.
Aside from the Arthur Melo/Miralem Pjanic swap deal, only Ivan Rakitic has been sold at the time of writing.
In order to bring in other players it would appear that sales are the only way for the Catalans to generate enough cash to do deals.
Indeed, although De Telegraaf cited by transfermarkt noted that the transfer of Memphis Depay from Lyon to Barcelona had been completed, a subsequent tweet by Lyon president, Jean-Michel Aulas, appeared to say completely the opposite.
‘The president of Barca told me on Sunday that Barca was suffering a lot from the COVID crisis and had no possibility of making an offer,’ it read.
It seems fairly clear that former Dutch manager, Koeman, wants Depay in his ranks at the Camp Nou, and to that end, Don Balon are reporting that he may try to cash in on Ousmane Dembele, a potential alternative at Man United for Jadon Sancho according to ESPN.
Don Balon suggest an overload in Barca’s attack, particularly if the club aren’t able to rid themselves of Luis Suarez.
Though Martin Braithwaite could also go, he wouldn’t bring in even a quarter of €60m that the club would hope to earn from a Dembele sale.
Watch this space.