Barcelona set their sights on Lukaku
The signing of a striker continues to be Barcelona's priority in terms of strengthening the team for next season.
Romelu Lukaku is now entering the equation as the transfers of Haaland and Lewandowski, the club's first two options, are becoming more complicated and it seems very unlikely that the Catalan giants will be able to secure either of the pair's services this summer.
The Norwegian is caught between Manchester City and Real Madrid, although Bayern have never ceased to have him in their sights, while Barcelona can't afford to pay the sums involved in this operation in terms of transfer, fee and agents' commissions.
Lewandowski's case is also complex. Bayern have been very clear in declaring him non-transferable. Bayern's idea is to sign a new contract, but if there is no agreement, the Bavarian club are willing to keep him for one more year and let him leave in 2023, when his contract expires.
Faced with this predicament, the club's Sporting Department is ready to launch plan C. And this is where Lukaku's name comes in. The Belgian striker is not happy at Chelsea.
In fact, he was already on the verge of leaving in the winter transfer window. But in the summer, everything indicates that he will leave London. That is what the player is claiming and there are several teams interested.
The talent of this forward is beyond doubt despite the fact that he is not performing as expected at Chelsea, where he has only scored 12 goals this season.
However, in the two previous seasons at Inter he managed a total of 64 goals in 95 games, a record to be taken into account in a competition as tough as Serie A.
Mateu Alemany and Jordi Cruyff have already met with Federico Pastorello, the player's representative, to see what possibilities there would be to sign Lukaku. However, it will be a very complicated deal.
Chelsea paid 115 million Euro for the striker a year ago, so there are still 92 million Euro to be repaid and this already indicates how much a transfer that Barcelona cannot afford at the moment could cost.
The option could be a transfer in which the Catalan club would pay some money and the player's salary without having to undertake a transfer of so many millions. This could be a solution.
To date, there has been no concrete move for the player. Both parties are aware of the situation and are also waiting to see how Chelsea's new ownership is decided and what their intentions are with their players.
Barcelona, meanwhile, are still awaiting funding to see how far they can go in terms of signings. Laporta is working to reach an agreement with CVC that will allow him to have cash for new purchases.
And we must not forget that the future of players such as Coutinho, Pjanic and Trincao, among others, must be resolved in order to find out how the club's wage bill will stand.
