Barça will not sign César Azpilicueta, the great desire of the Catalans to reinforce the right back for next season. The Spaniard, who intended to change scenery this summer, has renewed for two years with Chelsea, which with the new owner, now in the hands of Todd Boehly, changed position with its captain.
The Barcelona club had an agreement for months with Azpilicueta, who was to be released this summer until the blues exercised an automatic one-year renewal stipulated in his contract. Despite this, the Navarrese defender had the word of Marina Granovskaia, sports director of the Londoners before Roman Abramovich sold the club.
The new owners toughened their stance with Azpilicueta, who in recent times was priced at an unaffordable price for Barça, according to As. Given his complicated departure before August 31, the 32-year-old veteran defender has chosen to continue at the club where he has played for the last ten years, since his arrival in 2012.
Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has also been a big part of Azpilicueta finally staying on. “I’m not sure if I want to give Azpi what he wants. This is also about what we want, what the team wants,” the German coach recently commented on his pupil.
In this way, Barça will have to look for other options if it wants to reinforce the position of the right back, where currently the Barcelona coach, Xavi Hernández, has Sergi Roberto, renewed for a year a few months ago, and the American Sergiño Dest, who had sounded to leave the Catalan club this summer.
On the other band, on the left side, the club chaired by Joan Laporta has as its objective the signing of Marcos Alonso, also a Chelsea player. In this transfer market, Barça and the Blues have coincided in several operations. Raphinha, Koundé and the resigned Dembéle were on the Stamford Bridge team’s agenda, but the Blaugrana won the fight.
