Barcelona will not sign a midfielder to cover Sergio Busquets
Barcelona have began to plan for next season and the club are clear on how the project needs to evolve. The initial idea, save anything unexpected and undesired, is to keep the spine of the side together and to invest in two right-backs and a central defender with potential. Barça have ruled out signing a midfielder who can sit in front of the back four, given Sergio Busquets is a given and Sergi Roberto will cover him once he’s freed from filling in at right-back.
’NO’ TO JULIAN WEIGL
Diario AS revealed the possibility of Barça getting involved in the bidding for Borussia Dortmund’s defensive midfielder Julian Weigl this week. Without doubt, he’s one of the most promising players in his position and Barça’s reports on him are good, but the club will not enter the fight for his signature. Weigl, followed by Europe’s best clubs, could draw a big fee and Barça feel they have that position more than covered.
In fact, Barça have spent years deciding not to sign a player to give Busquets a break. In the past they’ve held talks with Lars Bender, of Bayer Leverkusen, and Geoffrey Kondogbia, currently at Inter Milan, but didn’t go through with either of the deals.
It is true that Busquets plays a lot of minutes and has done in recent seasons. But for that reason the club have renewed his contract until 2021. They have complete confidence in the player. As of today, Busquets is the best player in his position and it’s difficult for the club to find someone happy to play backup.
Therefore, they’re thinking that Sergi Roberto’s next step could be as cover for Busquets. The coaches feel he could adapt to the position well and they also have confidence that Andre Gomes can play that role in the future. He’s already done so on several occasions this season. What’s clear is that Busquets is untouchable. The club feel it would be impossible to fit in a talent like Weigl in the near future.
