“I imagine there will be an agreement’ – Atletico Madrid to negotiate with Barca

Barcelona defender Clement Lenglet has not gone into a summer with much certainty over his future for a number of years, playing for three different sides since first leaving the Catalan giants on loan for Aston Villa. This season he was at one stage a regular for Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid, and Los Colchoneros will look to retain the French international.

Lenglet was part of Atletico’s decisive clashes this season, despite competing with for a spot with club icon Jose Maria Gimenez and big-money signing Robin Le Normand, Simeone turned to him often. However with talk that Los Rojiblancos could move to bring back Santiago Mourino from a strong season at Alaves via a buyback clause, that has thrown Lenglet’s future into uncertainty. Even just to keep both him and Juan Musso on loan for the Club World Cup, Atletico may have to pay a fee to keep them in July.

However that doubt has been cleared up by President Enrique Cerezo, who has declared that negotiations are on the horizon. The 29-year-old has reportedly already told Barcelona that he wants to stay at Atleti next season, and Cerezo told TV3 that talks were on the horizon.

“Lenglet is a player owned by Barca. We’ll talk. I imagine there’ll be an agreement for him to stay with us,” he explained as quoted by Sport.

The key point of negotiation is likely to be Lenglet’s salary. The Frenchman is one of the highest earners at Barcelona, and they are believed to be paying the majority of his salary as things stand. It seems unlikely they will ask for much in the way of a fee, but the Blaugrana will want to get the entirety of his salary off their books, and it is not clear how much of the difference between what Atletico are willing to offer and his current salary Lenglet will be willing got forego.