It’s understood that the hunt for a reliable right-back has taken Barcelona to places.
To begin with, names such as Thomas Meunier of Borussia Dortmund and Vanderson de Oliveira Campos of AS Monaco have come, but as it seems, the Blaugrana are looking for someone with more experience in La Liga itself and someone who can acquire multiple positions.
Meanwhile, Barcelona are also considering Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin. The Gunners are said to be willing to part ways with him for free, but the 27-year-old is only considered a plan B for the moment.
In this context, a certain Juan Foyth, a former Tottenham Hotspur full-back who currently plays for Villarreal, is doing rounds. The 24-year-old is said to be on Barcelona’s radar, but nothing substantial has happened to date.
This is mainly because Villarreal are unwilling to part ways in the first place and as relayed by their manager, Unai Emery, the player is quite happy where he is at the moment.
“[Right-back] is a position that Barcelona need and he fits them. The issue is whether the player wants it or not. He has always told me that he is very happy,” the Europa League specialist was quoted as saying.
“He does not contemplate leaving and wants to stay. I can’t rule out his departure. But normally, he would stay,” he added.
In all fairness, interest in Foyth does not really strike as any surprise as his style of play is more or less similar to that of former target Cesar Azpilicueta. Much like the Chelsea captain, the Villarreal full-back can be slotted in both as a centre-half and a full-back.
For now, all Barcelona fans can do is wait right until the end of the transfer window as it is evident that since Sergino Dest is no longer in the plan, they will, in fact, acquire a natural right-back since Ronald Araujo cannot always be relied on that position.
Now, we, at Barça Universal, asked our followers on Twitter to have their say on whether they would want to see Foyth in Barcelona colours and a whopping 50.9% of users are up for that.
Out of a total of 6,806 votes, 3,464 users (50.9%) said yes, 1,660 (24.4%) said no and 1,681 (24.7%) picked the third option which was ‘unsure’.
Poll: Are you in favour of Juan Foyth's move to Barcelona this summer?
— Barça Universal (@BarcaUniversal) August 19, 2022
As it seems, most Barcelona fans would welcome Foyth at Camp Nou, but that will only be made possible if the team can sanction a few exits.
The likes of Memphis Depay and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were thought to be the casualties and while the latter’s move to Chelsea is still seeming evident, the Dutchman’s departure to Juventus recently collapsed as the Italian team decided to sign Arkadiusz Milik instead.
As reported by transfer expert Fabrizio Romano, all the talks of Depay demanding more salary turned out to be baseless rumours as it were Juventus who decided to invest their budget on Milik and now on Leandro Paredes.
So for now, everything is exactly where it was yesterday. There are no movements, at least for Depay, but Barcelona will hope to solve everything before the transfer market slams shut.
