Barcelona have been short of sales this summer, and with Atletico Madrid offloading two of their unwanted assets to Olympique Marseille, may hope to repeat their trick.
According to Sport, OM have asked the club about the availability of central defenders Clement Lenglet and Eric Garcia.
The former is expected to leave the club after spending last season on loan at Tottenham Hotspur, is expected to leave this summer. He had been in talks over returning to Spurs, but between Lenglet’s high salary and Barcelona’s €15m demands, those discussions have been halted.
🚨 Olympique de Marseille have asked Barcelona for Eric García and Clément Lenglet. @sport
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) July 24, 2023
Meanwhile Garcia’s future is less certain. With Ronald Araujo, Jules Kounde, Andres Christensen and Inigo Martinez all ahead of him in the pecking order (Marcos Alonso also played centre-back ahead of him last season), Garcia is unlikely to see much game time. Garcia has so far rejected the offer to leave on loan for Real Betis, while OM would be open to a transfer or a loan. His salary fits their bill, but Lenglet’s is expected to be much more difficult to negotiate.
No doubt Barcelona would be open to allowing both to leave if the right offer arrived, but what OM consider the right offer is likely to be different to Barcelona. Neither has huge value on the market, even if their respective upsides are quite high. In particular, Lenglet’s high salary makes it hard for Barcelona to extract a fee.
10 million for the pair Marseille and they are yours thats how badly i rate both of them and want them both out of our club asap.