Andreas Christensen made his return from injury last night, featuring in Barcelona’s comfortable 4-0 victory over Real Betis.
The Dane’s performance stressed the importance of having reliable defenders at the back, with Barça keeping yet another clean sheet. Shortly after the win, Gerard Romero offered an update on Barcelona’s transfer policy.
The Spanish journalist suggests the Catalans will only consider transfers for starting defenders such as Christensen, Ronald Araujo, Alejandro Balde and Jules Kounde if clubs come up with offers exceeding €90 million.
But in essence, Barcelona consider these four players ‘untouchable’, as they have added great value to the club’s defensive solidity – the Blaugrana have the best defensive record in La Liga this season with a total of 24 clean sheets.
There were rumours linking Christensen to a move away from Camp Nou recently, as part of the club’s plans to generate fresh revenue. But it appears the club have no intention to offload any of the four defenders, let alone Christensen.
A more reasonable move made by Barça was to approach the Dane with the hope of reducing his salary. But they were reportedly rejected by the player, who had just joined the club last summer. Barcelona respected his decision, knowing he rejected other offers to come to Camp Nou.
This doesn’t change the fact that Barça are in desperate need of reducing €200 million from the salary budget. A bulk of the rejig will come in the form of player sales, with the likes of Clement Lenglet, Samuel Umtiti and Sergino Dest all poised to depart Camp Nou at the end of the season.
Even the likes of Ferran Torres and Ansu Fati have been linked with exits. But one thing is for sure – the club have no intention of selling any of their starting defenders unless they receive a highly valued offer from a European giant.
