Barcelona willing to listen to offers for 31-year-old mainstay, player not considered ‘untouchable’

Barcelona are in urgent need to sell some players in the summer in an attempt to raise money to pursue reinforcements for their starting lineup.

They will be looking to push for a holding midfielder, which has been their primary concern following the departure of Sergio Busquets to Inter Miami.

Oriol Romeu was brought in from Girona for €3.5 million in an attempt to paper over the crack, but is now left behind Andreas Christensen in the midfield pecking order. Ilkay Gundogan and Frenkie de Jong are over him in the ladder, as well.

As such, some of the more ‘important’ players in the team are also now considered dispensable, including a certain Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

Barcelona listening to offers

According to a report relayed by The Daily Briefing, Barcelona are willing to listen to offers for ter Stegen in the summer as the player is not considered an ‘untouchable’ member of the squad.

As the second-captain of the club, the starting goalkeeper, and one of the more experienced players in a relatively young squad, the German’s importance is often underplayed by fans, but Barcelona are in a dire financial situation, and will likely not consider those factors.

Especially because Al-Ittihad from Saudi Arabia have been quoted with an interest in the player, with reports also claiming that ter Stegen has a ‘very interesting’ offer from the Middle East on his table.

More interestingly, the man rumored to be pursuing this signing on Ittihad’s behalf is none other than Barcelona’s former sporting director Ramon Planes.

Should the move go through, on Barcelona’s term, especially, Deco will be tasked with the responsibility of bringing in a replacement in the summer who can fill in ter Stegen’s ten-year-old boots.

The likes of Stole Dimitrievski, Giorgi Mamardashvili, and of course, Las Palmas’ Alvaro Valles have all impressed this season in the league, but Barcelona must carefully sieve through potential options before picking out their pick of the bunch.