English clubs want Alejandro Balde and Newcastle United may make sense as a destination for the Barcelona wonderkid.
Barcelona have missed out on the Champions League knockout stages and their summer spending spree now looks ill-advised.
Barca had seemingly budgeted for prize money from the knockouts and now face another financial nightmare.
We can only assume that if it isn’t nailed down, it’s up for sale at Barcelona now.
That means Frenkie de Jong, Memphis Depay, maybe even Memphis Depay could be available.
English clubs want Alejandro Balde
Then there is left back Balde, who should be the future of Barcelona.
Spain Under-21 boss Luis de la Fuente recent suggested that Balde has ‘huge potential’.
Balde, 19, has come up through the Barcelona ranks having joined from neighbours Espanyol at the age of just eight.
An attack-minded left back, Balde has made 13 first-team appearances this season with three assists to his name.
That should be pretty exciting for Barcelona but there are instead rumours about a departure.
Catalan newspaper SPORT report that two English clubs have already made important offers to try and lure Balde away from Barcelona.
Balde wants to stay but the offers are tempting and agent Jorge Mendes may try to engineer a departure.
The identities of the two clubs are a mystery but Newcastle United could be in the picture.
Manchester City have Joao Cancelo and Sergio Gomez. Manchester United only recently signed Tyrell Malacia whilst Liverpool have Andrew Robertson and Kostas Tsimikas.
Chelsea have Ben Chilwell and Marc Cucurella, Arsenal have added Oleksandr Zinchenko to compete with Kieran Tierney and Tottenham will have Destiny Udogie joining Ryan Sessegnon and Ivan Perisic at left wing back in 2023.
There isn’t a clear suggestion in the top six and that takes us to the main team looking to gatecrash the European places – Newcastle.
Eddie Howe doesn’t have a nailed-on first-choice left back right now with Dan Burn and Matt Targett splitting time there of late.
Left back may not be an absolute priority for Newcastle right now but if a top talent was on the table – somebody like Balde – then they could make that move to bolster Howe’s attacking play down the flanks.
Newcastle have shown a desire to sign players with high potential like Alexander Isak, Bruno Guimaraes and Sven Botman.
They have the money to go and throw at Balde and Barcelona and continue that approach of signing players who can get better and better.
When you add all of that together, Newcastle make sense as a destination for Balde and we wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Magpies tried a cheeky move in 2023.
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