- 8 hours ago
Koeman: We’ll need to see if Barca have the money to sign Garcia
Paul Macdonald
- Updated: 20 May 2021 11:26 BST
- 2 min read
Barcelona head coach Ronald Koeman has said the club will have to wait and see if there’s money available to make a move for Manchester City defender Eric Garcia.
The 19-year-old centre-back left the Catalan giants in 2017 to join Pep Guardiola’s City and was strongly linked with a return to the Camp Nou over the summer.
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A price couldn’t be agreed between the two sides though, and Garcia was expected to re-join his boyhood club in January for a lowered fee when his contract with the 2018/19 Premier League champions only had six months left to run.
Speaking at a press conference ahead of Barca’s upcoming La Liga fixture with newly-promoted Cadiz, Koeman was asked about a potential move for Garcia but was reluctant to give a definitive answer.
“It is still early to talk about signings. We already have Araújo, and we will recover Umtiti soon. We have to wait until January and see the new president, and see if there is money in the club,” revealed the Dutchman.
It’s been a tough start to the new campaign for the Blaugrana. Three losses in their first nine league games have left them sitting in seventh position, ten points behind Real Sociedad at the top of the table, although they do have two games in hand over their domestic rivals.
The need for a new centre-half in Catalonia was magnified last month when Gerard Pique picked up a serious knee injury that’s likely to keep him on the sidelines until April.
