Barcelona to off-load three starlets to compensate Manchester City swoop

With the transfer window in foresight, Barcelona are planning to off-load few mainstays in order to cut down on the wage bill for the reinforcements to arrive at the Camp Nou, among which Ferran Torres seems to be the top most priority. The axe is reportedly going to fall on Ousmane Dembele, Sergino Dest and Philippe Coutinho. This comes as per The Express.

The Catalans have had the worst possible start to the La-Liga Santander, placed 7th on the table with 27 points from 17 league fixtures. Their performances this season have been questionable with the former La Liga champions 16-point adrift from the League-leaders in Real Madrid.

Coutinho has been a flop, with the Brazilian midfielder failing to prove his worth with the ball at his feet, after joining the Spanish club in 2018 from Liverpool. He’s said to have a few options ahead of him with Newcastle being the front runners to land the 29-year-old in the winter window, which could be a blessing in disguise for the Catalans.

Sergino Dest was a consistent starter under Ronald Koeman, but has struggled to find minutes under Xavi Hernandez. The USA national has been rather sloppy this season with just a handful of moments to showcase for and disappointed on most occasions. Bayern Munchen are considers to be the favourites to claim the 22-year-old winger, who is not short of talent and could prove his worth under Julian Nagelsman at the Bundesliga.

It is safe to say that Barcelona have dug their own grave choosing Ousmane Dembele over Kylian Mbappe, with the former spending a lion share of his time injured ever since joining the Blaugrana for a tremendous €150 million from Borussia Dortmund in 2017. The injury-prone winger has been inconsistent, scoring a mere 28 goals and 17 assists in 122 appearances for the Catalans.

Barcelona are keen on landing Ferran Torres in the January window, who is expected to be a vital cog in Xavi’s line up for the Catalans to regain their place in the UEFA Champions League. This will be to obtain the prized signature of players like Erling Haaland, Dusan Vlahovic and Matthias De Ligt in the Summer window.

With the negotiations almost in the conclusive phase over the transfer fee of Torres, which is over €45 million plus €5 in variables, expecting the official statement from FC Barcelona in the pre-christmas period itself isn’t going to be a surprise.