Barcelona President Joan Laporta has confirmed that they will try to sign Joao Cancelo from Manchester City and Joao Felix from Atletico Madrid, should they maintain their level of form.
Felix arrived on loan from Atletico, taking a pay cut in the process, while Cancelo also came in on deadline day on a loan deal from Manchester City. Neither of those deals included buy options.
After starting the season in fine form with Barcelona though, many have been wondering if and how the Blaugrana could possibly retain them, with little in the bank to make sizeable transfer offers.
Laporta explained to Catalunya Radio that while it was not purely down to him, they would probably do what they could in order to keep hold of ‘the Joaos’.
“Well, If they continue playing like this, we will have to make the effort to sign the Joaos. But it also depends a lot on what Deco says.”
Laporta has never hidden his admiration for Felix, whom he has spoken about in glowing terms even before he joined the club.
“I want the best to stay. I really like Joao Felix, always have. There are very competitive players in the Barca squad. We have a team with much higher value in the market than we had when we arrived. Many of them have come from the academy too, which is important. It makes us competitive.”
“Who doesn’t like Pedri, Gavi, Balde, Lewandowski, Raphinha, Cancelo…?”
Already there has been plenty of reporting on strategies and approaches that Barcelona may take to try and hang onto to two players they currently cannot afford to sign. Atletico Madrid appear to have settled on their price for Felix, but at this point, everything is a negotiation position.
