Three Man Utd stars Barcelona are ready to battle for

Robin Bairner

• 12 Dec 2022 08:37 GMT
• 3 min read

Manchester United will have to fend of Barcelona’s interest in three players as the Catalan club seek high-quality reinforcements to bolster their squad.

The Blaugrana’s financial position means that they could be more active in the January transfer window than the summer owing to a quirk of Spanish Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations.

In January, Barca will be able to spend any transfer income they bring in on their squad. However, by the summer, it has been forecast they will only be able to splash out one-third of that revenue on new players.

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This is the reason that Barcelona are so interested in free agents, but they are also looking at potential January bargains, with Manchester United a club their sights have fallen upon.

According to Sport, there are three players the Camp Nou side could raid the Red Devils for.

Who could Barcelona sign from Man Utd?

Luke Shaw, Diogo Dalot and Fred are all entering the last six months of their contracts and are all players who could interest the Blaugrana.

Of this trio, Shaw and Fred would appear to be the most important duo. Barcelona need cover at left-back, where Alejandro Balde has offered cover at times this season, while Sergio Busquets’ uncertain future means that additional cover is required in a defensive midfield role.

Although these players appear to be potential bargains, though, Ten Hag has indicated that Man Utd are unwilling for them to depart on free transfers.

Talking about those players with contracts expiring, he explained on Sunday: “We are talking to them to extend contracts, but we have control because we have an option on all the players and we will exercise those options.”

Man Utd will, therefore, be able to trigger a one-year automatic contract extension to all three players Barcelona are said to be following, as well as David de Gea, Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho, whose deals also run out in June 2023.