Barcelona plan transfer raid on Chelsea for Atletico Madrid loanee Saul Niguez
According to the Spanish publication Sport (h/t The Sun), Barcelona are laying down the foundations to raid Chelsea for Atletico Madrid loanee Saul Niguez in the summer transfer window. He has enjoyed a turn of good fortunes recently after having to endure a tough start to life at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues had signed Saul from Atletico temporarily after paying £3.4million in loan fees at the start of this season. The English club have an option to make the move permanent for £30million in the summer transfer window. That being said, they are not expected to trigger the clause despite his change of form in recent times.
Barca are looking to take advantage of this situation to facilitate a transfer next summer. However, they are holding back to see if Atleti would buy Antoine Griezmann permanently or not in the future. The Catalans want to use Griezmann as a makeweight during negotiations for the Spanish midfielder.
Should Chelsea intervene?
The optional clause in the 27-year-old midfielder’s contract gives us an edge over Xavi Hernandez’s side in the race to sign him. That could come in handy if there is a change of mind among the board or Thomas Tuchel regarding Niguez’s future with us.
However, just like the West London club, we too believe that the Atletico star should return to Wanda Metropolitano at the end of this campaign. Even if the central midfielder has done well recently, there is no desperate need on our part to activate the buy option at this moment.
We are blessed with lots of options in the midfield like Mason Mount, Jorginho, N’Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic and Ruben Loftus-Cheek right now. Moreover, players like Conor Gallager and Billy Gilmour have excelled at their loan clubs and would return after this season to join the squad.
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That is without considering the upcoming superstars like Xavier Simons who have shown the signs of becoming a success with us in the future. As such, it would be best to let Saul return to join the Colchoneros at the end of this season. Whether he can change the club’s stance by reaching new heights or not remains to be seen in the months to come ahead of next summer.