Barcelona have reportedly found a ‘solution’ as they look to sign Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford before Monday night’s transfer deadline.
Rashford is available for transfer. On New Year’s Eve, he announced that he is “ready” for a new challenge away from Man Utd.
The Red Devils are looking to offload several talents to raise funds for Ruben Amorim’s rebuild at Old Trafford, but they have struggled to usher their underperforming stars out of the door.
The United forward presumably assumed he’d have a move by this point of the January window, but his huge salary and poor recent performances are proving a stumbling block.
Several clubs have exited the Rashford transfer race, but it’s consistently been reported that Spanish giants Barcelona are his ‘dream’ destination.
READ: Marcus Rashford being ‘forced out’ of Man Utd for ‘survival’ of club?
Barcelona are already well-stocked in attacking areas and it’s hard to see Rashford improving their squad, especially considering his decline over the past 18 months.
Despite this, a report in Spain claims Barcelona are ‘trying to speed up Rashford’s arrival’. They have ‘decided that they will bring in a new player in this winter transfer market’ and the Man Utd outcast ‘is the chosen one’.
There are reportedly three reasons for Barcelona’s interest in Rashford: ‘He has a great deal of experience in the elite, and can land at Camp Nou in really favourable conditions.
‘In addition, he can occupy all the positions in the attacking area, so he would serve to give Raphinha, Lamine Yamal and Robert Lewandowski a rest.’
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Regarding the conditions to sign Rashford, it’s claimed that ‘in addition to having to pay a total of three million euros to United for the loan until June, they will also have to pay him practically all of the salary he receives at the moment, which is not exactly low’.
Barcelona’s financial issues will be impacting negotiations with ‘their idea behind recruiting Rashford to get rid of some of the squad’s players who have a secondary role’.
Eric Garcia, Ansu Fati, Pau Victor and Pablo Torre are named as candidates to leave, but they ‘have decided to reject the offers they have received and will stay in the dressing room’.
Instead, the exits of three young talents provide a ‘solution’ for Barcelona. The report explains.
‘So the solution will be found with two talents from the reserve team who are very close to saying goodbye to Barcelona, after not having had the opportunity to debut with the first team, nor to be included in any of Hansi Flick’s squads.
‘We are referring to Pau Prim and Unai Hernandez, who were considered two of the great diamonds of La Masía, and were free on June 30, which is why they are working on renewing their contracts.
‘The problem is that they have rejected all offers, and have opted to leave for Qatar and Saudi Arabia, respectively. At least, they will leave about 10 million in the coffers.
‘Barcelona could also make a considerable profit thanks to the transfer of Mika Marmol, who continues to play for UD Las Palmas, to AS Roma, who have his 10 million release clause ready.
‘50% of that figure would go to the Catalans, who would thus have more budget available and would be invested in signing Rashford.’
