With Mateu Alemany set to depart Barcelona on June 30, the Catalans’ exit-bound Director of Football is convinced that, as his last act, he can secure the signing of Atletico Madrid winger Yannick Carrasco for just €10 million.
This claim comes from Javi Miguel of AS, who writes that Alemany has promised Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez that he will close all the pending transfers before he departs the club, with many deals already believed to be on track.
Among those operations is the signing of Carrasco from Atletico Madrid. Barça secured a preferential buy option for the Belgian winger while negotiating the sale of Memphis Depay with the Rojiblancos in January.
It has been reported that the transfer fee for which Barcelona can sign Carrasco is around €16 million. However, the La Liga leaders have no intentions of paying that fee for the winger and are hoping to not spend more than €9-10 million.
Atletico Madrid, for their part, are uninterested in offering any discounts to their rivals and wish to extract the full fee from Barça for Carrasco.
However, Alemany is convinced that he can sign the 29-year-old winger for a fee of just €10 million and hopes to complete that operation before he is on his way to Aston Villa at the end of the season.
Carrasco is seen as an important reinforcement by Xavi, especially amidst doubts over the continuity of Ansu Fati and Ferran Torres. The Belgian international, along with returning loanee Ez Abde, are being seen as the options for the left flank going forward at Barcelona.
Carrasco’s contract with Atletico Madrid expires in 2024. So, it is understandable why the Blaugrana are unwilling to pay close to €20 million for his signing. It now remains to be seen whether Alemany is able to get the deal across the line for a fee of around €10 million.
