FC Barcelona have launched a joint bid for Bernardo Silva and Joao Cancelo
Visionhaus/Getty ImagesFC Barcelona have launched a joint bid for Manchester City stars Bernardo Silva and Joao Cancelo according to SPORT.
The Catalan daily newspaper reports that Barca sent City an offer to take the Portuguese players on loan with an obligation to buy.
In Silva’s case, Barca propose paying €70 million ($77.1 million) for him at the end of the upcoming 2023/2024 season, when he would have just over 12 months to run on his contract at the Eithad.
The report comes after SPORT explained that Barca were preparing a package of €65 million ($71.7 million) in fixed money for Silva plus €10 million ($11 million) in variables.
Just before that, Fabrizio Romano revealed that the La Liga champions had already agreed personal terms with Cancelo, who has recently completed a temporary assignment at Bayern Munich after falling out with City boss Pep Guardiola.
On Friday, at a pre-match press conference ahead of the Mancunians‘ Community Shield clash with Arsenal, Guardiola seemed to open the door to Barca pursuing Silva but also made it clear that an adequate proposal hadn’t been made for one of his highest-rated players.
„I don’t want any players who don’t want to be here. I want to work with guys who want to stay,“ Guardiola said.
„But we need a proper offer, we didn’t… If they want him, they’ll get on a plane and speak to our sporting director…,“ the Barca legend then trailed off.
Whether this bid SPORT speak of is ‚proper‘ in the eyes of City’s Abu Dhabi owners remains to be seen.
Many might scoff at a rival club proposing such an arrangement, but City might see the potential operation as still getting good money for Silva a year from now when his contract will be well on the road to expiry after which he could walk for free.
Putting a spanner in the works could be reports from Toni Juanmarti that Silva is ready to consider extending with City thanks to a lack of a concrete approach from Barca thus far.
If Ousmane Dembele, Franck Kessie and possibly Ansu Fati – who has interested PSG according to AS – were all to be offloaded, however, funds might be freed up in the here to prevent buy-now-pay later deals from being conjured up.