It turns out that Barcelona hasn’t given up on their pursuit of Argentinian striker Lautaro Martinez. According to ESPN, Barca already agreed to personal terms with Martinez, and now only has to convince Inter Milan to sell.
Martinez was linked with Barcelona for the past few months, but the Spanish club couldn’t make a deal with Inter, and it appeared that the move wouldn’t happen. However, ESPN’s sources claim that Barca continued to talk with the 22-year-old in the meantime and has reached a verbal agreement with the player in recent days.
Barca now has to come up with funds to meet Inter’s high asking price which primarily means moving Philippe Coutinho. While the club is aware that they’ll have to take a big loss on $160 million they paid to Liverpool for Coutinho in 2018, they still hope the Brazilian will still bring a big transfer fee.
The La Liga giants also hope that Inter will be willing to take players as part of the deal, but reportedly that is unlikely to happen.
The list of other players Barca is looking to sell includes back Nelson Semedo and midfielder Ivan Rakitic. They would also like to part ways with Ousmane Dembele, but the Frenchman isn’t likely to attract many offers due to his injury history.
