Opinion: Barcelona must sign a CENTRE-BACK this summer

Barcelona need to sign a CENTRE-BACK. Yes, in capital letters. A proper CETNRE-BACK. The type that can mark an era. Like Gerard Pique is doing. Or like Carles Puyol did. A centre-back who can help Barça fans forget the terrible recent experiences (Chygrynskiy, Martín Cáceres, Henrique…). Someone who is not being used out of position as an emergency (Mascherano). Someone who can offer security and be a regular (not like Mathieu and Vermaelen). I would have liked this CENTRE-BACK to be Marc Bartra. However, it seems as if he does not have a future at Camp Nou. At least not as a starter. For that reason, the club are obliged to look for and find a new CENTRE-BACK as soon as possible.

LAPORTE - THE FUTURE

Robert Fernandez’s job is not easy. It’s difficult to find the right centre-back for Barcelona in a market which, curiously, is not full of specialists. Nether in La Masia, in the immediate future, does there seem to be any candidates. For that reason, Barça’s list of options is not that long. Three names. The first of them, without doubt, is the top target: Aymeric Laporte. The 21-year-old Athletic Club defender is the CENTRE-BACK of the future. And of the present, because he has already spent four seasons in La Liga. “He has it all,” say Barça’s scouts. And at Camp Nou he would grow even more. But there’s a big problem: his price. He has a release clause of 50 million euros and the Basque club will not go lower than that. Barça have never paid so much for a defender. The record was 36 million euros for Dani Alves in 2008. But it’s also true that they spent 39 million two years ago on two substitutes: Mathieu (20) and Vermaelen (19). It would be much better to invest 50 million euros on Laporte. And, yes, Laporte is a CENTRE-BACK.