Fifth player set to leave Barcelona as summer clear-out continues
Barcelona’s summer clear out looks set to continue with the club reportedly agreeing to sell midfielder Carles Alena to Getafe.
According to Mundo Deportivo, the Catalan giants were holding out for €8 million but have settled on a €5 million fee, plus a percentage of future sales for the 23-year-old.
Alena is unlikely to be a huge loss to Ronald Koeman’s side, considering the Spaniard only featured in 48 minutes of game time for Barcelona last season before being loaned out to Getafe in the January transfer window.
However, at Getafe, Alena was offered plenty of time to prove his worth and ended up being a regular starter for the club. In 22 games last season he bagged two goals and two assists.
The midfielder now looks set to join a growing list of players leaving Barcelona this summer, as the club looks to recoup some income from stars that are now deemed surplus to requirement.
Alongside the proposed sale of Alena, Barcelona have also seen Junior Firp move to Leeds, Jean-Clair Todibo sign a permanent deal with Nice, Juan Miranda leave for free to join Betis and Trincao move on loan to Wolves.
Who else could leave Barcelona this summer?
While Alena marks the fifth first team player to leave the Catalan club, Barcelona are still to make any serious money from these departures.
As such, we can probably expect some high-profile sales in the coming months as the club looks to make ends meet and put together an enticing contract offer for Lionel Messi.
That’s likely to mean expensive, senior stars like Samuel Umtiti, Miralem Pjanic, Philippe Countinho and Antoine Griezmann could all leave Barcelona before the start of next season if good enough offers come in to help the club reduce their wage bill and make some money.