Barcelona have plenty to apologise to Ernesto Valverde for and if you believe some reports, they may be about to add robbing him of his best central defender to that list.
The Basque manager has just taken over at Athletic Club for a third spell and preparing Los Leones for an assault on the European places this season.
On Friday, rumours began to circulate about Barcelona taking an interest in Inigo Martinez. The 31-year-old has a year left on his deal and took part in Athletic’s 1-1 draw with Mainz on Saturday.
After the match, Valverde spoke to those rumours.
“We are dealing with the Inigo matter calmly. For us there is no situation. I suppose that all this is the classic thing that happens every summer, some clubs are interested or they say they are interested. We are calm. We always isolate ourselves from the stuff that comes out and that’s it.”
As is customary, Valverde did not seem overly worried about it. He continued on to assert that the player himself was the same as ever, as quoted by Mundo Deportivo.
“He has not said anything to me, nothing at all. Within the club we are all very calm about it. We have players who are very committed to the club, you can see that in every training session and in every match. He is an important player for us. Just as with everyone else, we count on them all.”
What may of more concern to Valverde is that promising midfielder Oihan Sancet had to be taken off after 48 minutes, seemingly with an injury. Sancet missed the back end of the last La Liga campaign with a pubalgia problem.
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