Barcelona are said to be locked in tense negotiations with Manchester City over their teenage star Eric Garcia according to Diario Sport.
Born in Barcelona, Garcia began his career with the Azulgrana before joining City in 2017 and making his senior debut in England. For him, however, the time has come to return to Spain.
And he’s needed. Barcelona failed to recruit a centre-back in the summer market despite an evident need for one, and want to bring in Garcia to complement Clement Lenglet, Gerard Pique and Ronald Araujo.
It’s taken for granted that Samuel Umtiti will leave the club for pastures new in January.
Barcelona have renewed negotiations with the Premier League club in the past ten days, but things aren’t moving smoothly. City want a fee of €15m.
Unless there’s a breakthrough, Garcia will have to wait it out until the summer to return to Barcelona with his contract due to expire on June 30th.
The Catalan has already made it clear that he has no desire to renew – he wants to return to the club with which he began and fight for a place in their starting eleven, and his position is said to immovable.
City know this, but rate Garcia highly and would rather lose him for nothing in the summer than sell him now for the small fee Barcelona are proposing, a sum considerably less than the €12m to €15m that would be deemed acceptable.
Garcia is said to not be enjoying life in the Premier League right now as he is coming under significant pressure from the City hierarchy to sign a new contract.
Barcelona are in constant contact with him and his camp, but are also working on alternatives as they indeed have a gap to fill at centre-back.
Any player they could bring in is expected to be stopgap until Garcia can return to Camp Nou in the summer at the latest.
Featured image courtesy of Eurosport.
