Jose Maria Bartomeu performed a masterstroke in persuading Frenkie de Jong to sign for Barcelona from Ajax, and now the president will go back to work as Barcelona hope to add De Jong's teammate Matthijs de Ligt to their defensive ranks.
The young centre half has been fantastic since breaking into the senior team at Ajax and has impressed with the Dutch national team throughout both 2018 and 2019.
Barcelona want to sign him in the summer and he has been at the top of their list of defensive targets for a while, something Bartomeu admitted recently.
However, Los Cules will not go crazy to bring the player to the Camp Nou, especially after committing to a total outlay of 86 million euros to sign De Jong in January.
The reigning LaLiga Santander champions don't have unlimited resources, especially after the signings of Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele with the Neymar money, furthermore there is also the prospect of bringing in Eintracht Frankfurt forward Luka Jovic as well.
It's important to remember that the Blaugrana are well stocked in defence and have no real need to push the boat out for De Ligt.
If he's available at a good price in relation to his market value then Barcelona would deem it prudent to sign him, due to his incredible talent, but for the moment the corps of Gerard Pique, Samuel Umtiti, Jean-Clair Todibo, Jeison Murillo and Clement Lenglet is more than acceptable.
There hasn't yet been a concrete offer from Barcelona for De Ligt, although a fee of around 70 million euros has been mentioned in initial talks between the two stalwarts of the European game.
Juventus will provide a huge challenge as Fabio Paratici looks to prepare for life after Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci, and you can never discount the sheer wealth of the Premier League coming into play.
If Barcelona are able to sign De Ligt then one of the aforementioned names will have to leave; that's the reality of the situation.
With neither one of Thomas Vermaelen or Murillo expected to remain beyond the end of the current campaign anyway, this could cast doubt on the future of the injury-plagued Umtiti.
Whether or not such a move could take place depends on the quality of offer that arrives in the offices of the Catalan club, and it's also thought that Umtiti wouldn't be willing to depart.
nuaabcdkl
50
Barca must keep 5 centre backs Pique, umtitti, langlet, tobido and should sign details ligt. Vermalon must be sold this upcoming summer. In this way Barca coach should manage these 5 centre backs. 1. Tobido should be sent on loan to some other club to learn , Ajax will be great. Left centre back :- 2. pique and de ligt will be for right CB and both of them should be used in rotation, till the time Pique is there he will play in all CL match and 70 % of la liga. De ligt should play in all Copa del Ray and 30% of la liga match. In this way he can be developed. Once pique retires tobido will join De ligt. Right centre back :- 3. Umtitti and laungle should be used in rotation on right centre back, 50-50% in all competitions. Then Barca will have strongest Centre back defensive players. Any one can be substituted at any point of time. If Barca want then they should sell coutinho, rakitic, Vidal but umtitti must not be sold at any cost. Prince, Murillo must not be on loan after this season. We will have Bussi, Arthur, de jong, Alena and they may keep one like rakitic or Vidal. Vidal is very useful when Barca is leading with more then 2 goal difference. Our Attack will be Messi, demble, Suarez/zovic or any other perfect no 9. Suarez can deliver for only next level at his level, so a perfect no 9 must be signed. There should be other players also in back up and all of them must rotated properly except Demble as he is young.
Sohaib786
39
Barcelona should definitely go for De Ligt as he can be the successor for pique, we cannot sell umtiti or Lenglet as both r left footed and De Ligt is right footed. Selling Vermaelan and loaning few defenders including Murillo will be perfect for the place of De Ligt as he's too good for the bench