We are not talking a holiday here, the maverick defender would be a perfect fit for Barcelona’s free flowing style of football.
David Luiz has been linked with a move to Spanish and European Champions Barcelona, in today’s Daily Mail.
He is every inch the stereotypical Brazilian defender, full of skill, loves to attack, but suspect when it comes to, well, actual defending.
Of course Luiz isn’t ‘that’ bad a defender, he has been made a scapegoat for some of Chelsea’s woes, but since his arrival he has hardly helped tighten the defence which was once the meanest in the Premier League.
A move to Barcelona would be the perfect fit.
The Catalans are a side which can afford the odd defensive mishap, purely because of their array of attacking talent.
They are a throwback to the old, ‘you score three, we’ll score four’ philosophy.
Pep Guardiola experimented earlier this season by almost doing away with a strict formation and playing a side almost complete with midfielders, such was his players’ ability to interchange position.
Luiz has long been vaunted as a midfielder trapped as a centre-half, and at Barcelona he would surely be given license to explore the creative side of his game, in the same way that Gerard Pique and Dani Alves step in as key parts of the Barcelona attack.
The side are looking for a long-term successor to Carlos Puyol, and while Milan’s Thiago Silva has also been linked, Luiz seems a genuine option, he even has Puyol’s hair to match.
Brazil manager Mano Menezes, has said he wants to bring the ‘old Brazilian style’ back to the national team, and has complained that Luiz is suffering from his Chelsea form, and so would encourage such a move.
The big stumbling block of course would be money.
Chelsea bought Luiz for £25 million, and would not want to take a loss, something they would be forced to do if they decided to cash in on Fernando Torres.
But Barcelona do not have as much cash as they are perceived to, and would surely prefer to reserve such a high portion of their transfer budget for an out and out attacker, such as Robin van Persie or Neymar.
They have done it before though, buying Ukranian defender Dmytro Chrygrynskiy for 25 million Euros in 2009, before selling him back to Shakhtar Donetsk and handful of appearances later for a 10 million Euro loss.
It will be interesting to watch this one develop in the summer, Chelsea would surely want to keep Luiz, but if a huge bid came in, would it be advisable to sell?
image: © Will Palmer
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