- 15 Nov 2024
Romano responds to West Ham star's shock Barcelona links
Stuart Telford
- 23 Nov 2023 21:07 GMT
- 3 min read
Barcelona have been linked with a move for West Ham's Pablo Fornals in light of Gavi's injury by Spanish media, and now transfer specialist Fabrizio Romano has had his say…
Gavi was injured whilst on international duty with Spain, with a torn ACL that will rule him out for the rest of the season.
The Spanish FA will pay Barca €7.5m in compensation, and Cadena SER's David de Gustin was among those who had suggested that the funds might go some way to bringing Fornals to Camp Nou as his short-term replacement.
Spaniard Fornals previously starred with the Hammers as well as Villarreal and Malaga before arriving in England in 2019, but has fallen behind Jarrod Bowen, Lucas Paqueta and, latterly, Mohammed Kudus for an attacking midfield berth this season.
Valued at €18 million by FootballTransfers' in-house algorithm, it may have seemed plausible that Barca could stretch to signing him after restructuring their debt, but Romano is unconvinced.
Fornals finding his form 👊 pic.twitter.com/tTM958tTag
— West Ham United (@WestHam) May 28, 2023
Romano: Vitor Roque the priority
"There have been some surprise links between Pablo Fornals and Barcelona, with the West Ham midfielder supposedly mentioned as an option to cover for the injured Gavi," he wrote in his CaughtOffside column.
"Still, I'm not aware of concrete talks for Fornals so far, there's still nothing decided in terms of [a] new midfielder. As [sporting director] Deco said, the situation is still very quiet. Barcelona’s priority is to use funds on Financial Fair Play to register Vitor Roque."
Barcelona have committed to paying Athletico Paranaense up to €61m to bring Brazilian prodigy Roque to Camp Nou, with the expense of the deal making an arrival next summer far more likely than one in the coming winter transfer window.
For now, his primary positions - in central midfield and on the left of a front three - will be occupied by Ilkay Gundogan and Frenkie de Jong in the former, and Joao Felix or Ferran Torres in the latter role.
