Samuel Umtiti is one player who has been linked with a move away from Barcelona, with a number of clubs interested in the Frenchman. While Manchester United have been leading the race according to a few reports, a Spanish daily claims that Chelsea too want to sign the 24-year-old.
Don Balon (h/t The Daily Star) reports that the Blues want to sign the highly rated defender due to their problems with the current central defenders.
David Luiz seems to be out of favour under Antonio Conte and Gary Cahill is a shell of the player that he was when we signed him a few years ago. There is some doubt about the future of Conte too but Umtiti would still be a great signing for us.
The major problem lies with Umtiti’s wages as Barcelona don’t want to double the defender’s salary. United are willing to activate his release clause which is rumoured to be around €60m, which is peanuts when we talk about the prices that some teams have paid for players in the Premier League.
A Star In The Making For Barcelona
Umtiti has played 20 games in the league for the Catalan giants and has been one of the major reasons why the club is in such a great position when it comes to the league and the Champions League.
The report claims that Lionel Messi wants Umtiti to stay and given how powerful the Argentine is at Barcelona, I would expect the French defender to stay at the club, with the club bowing down to his demands.
The 24-year-old is one of the best young defenders in the world and it would be rank stupidity from the Catalan giants to let him go. There is no doubt that Umtiti would not be going away on the cheap and if we really want to get back to our best, we would have to break the bank for the 24-year-old.
The transfer seems unlikely at the moment but crazier things have happened in football.