With just five days remaining in the transfer market, it’s no surprise that possible moves were high up the list of questions during his pre-match press conference.
On Sunday evening Barcelona play Real Valladolid and Xavi Hernandez remained confident that he would have the still unregistered Jules Kounde at his disposal.
He was less sure that Barcelona would be able to do a deal for Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva. Xavi did not deny that there was interest, but a transfer seems unlikely.
“You never lose the hope, but it is difficult. There has to be exits and the truth is I think it is difficult, we are just a few days from the end of the market too.”
For a long time it has been rumoured that Barcelona are trying to sign Marcos Alonso from Chelsea, but Xavi was less forthcoming with his answer on the Spanish left-back. He had also stated that Barcelona were well-covered there with the development of Alejandro Balde.
“All situations are possible and we will evaluate all of the options. We cannot discard any scenarios.”
When it comes to departures, Xavi was also non-committal. All signs point to the fact that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Memphis Depay will not be first choice at Barcelona this season and plenty are suggesting they may leave before the end of the window. Xavi had this to say on their futures.
“I won’t discard any situation. That includes one where Aubameyang leaves or Memphis leaves… lots of things can happen. We will see the situation that we have.”
The general sensation conveyed by Xavi was that he was looking forward to the end of the transfer window so that he could focus on the football side of things. Later in the press conference he was asked a similar question about the potential departures of Memphis and Aubaemyang, to which he referred the journalist to his previous answer quite bluntly.
