Revealed: Barcelona’s five alternatives to Kounde
FT Desk
- 20 Jul 2022 22:15 BST
- 3 min read
On Tuesday it was exclusively revealed by FootballTransfers that Barcelona were trailing Chelsea in the race to sign Sevilla defender Jules Kounde.
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This comes as a big blow to Barcelona, who had made Kounde their top defensive target for the summer transfer window.
Barca plan to make one more notable centre-back signing before the end of the window, in addition to the free transfer arrival of Andreas Christensen from Chelsea.
The Blaugrana have thus drawn up a five-man alternative shortlist if Kounde does indeed not arrive, according to top Barcelona journalist Gerard Romeo.
The five players are Arsenal’s William Saliba, Inter’s Milan Skrinar, RB Leipzig’s Josko Gvardiol, Roger Ibanez of AS Roma and Inigo Martinez of Athletic Bilbao.
Saliba has only just returned to Arsenal after a string of loan spells away in his native France but his future at the Emirates under Mikel Arteta is far from certain.
Skriniar was expected to be sold by Inter this summer as they need to make a €60 million profit by the end of the summer on transfers. Inter were in negotiations to sell the Slovakian to PSG but the failure of the Nerazzurri to sign Bremer from Torino as his replacement has now complicated matters.
Gvardiol has impressed at Leipzig but will be difficult to sign as he only joined them a year ago.
Ibanez helped Roma win the Europa Conference League last season and is an intriguing if inconsistent talent.
Finally, Martinez at the age of 31 represents a more experienced option to the latter duo.
Barcelona are also in talks with Chelsea for Cesar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso, with the former able to play as a centre-back in a back-four.
