For now the third straight summer (and some winters), Chelsea’s 31-year-old winger Willian is being linked with a move to the Camp Nou. In other seasons, the numbers floated around were somewhere between 25 to 40 million euros. This time around though, Willian could sign on a free transfer after failing to nail down an extension at Stamford Bridge and his contract set to expire.
Barcelona has long been used as a club to get a client a better contract. Any player linked to the Catalan giants must be a player worth having, right? The enhanced revenue available for signing a Brazilian star is always intensively palpable, but for Barcelona, even that extra marketability may not have this transfer make sense from a money perspective.
Francesc and I have debated for months (it feels like decades) about the importance of strong wing play for the Blaugrana, something that has been sorely missing this season outside of the contributions from Ansu Fati. It seems like a gaping hole, and Culés are right not to trust Ousmane Dembélé’s hamstrings next season.
Yet, the wing options next season should include Ansu Fati, Francisco Trincão, Dembélé, and Antoine Griezmann playing out of position. If Pedri is going to stay with the first team, I think it’s more likely that he plays on the wing in his first season with Barcelona than as a midfielder. In the case of Philippe Coutinho, if the club are unable to find a destination for him either on a transfer or a loan, I would assume that he’ll play in the midfield in front of some combination of Frenkie de Jong, Sergio Busquets, and Miralem Pjanić. Yet, he could also be an option on the wing because he certainly doesn’t do the defensive job required of a midfielder behind Luis Suárez and Lionel Messi. In short, wing depth may again look weak next season with a mix of out-of-position players, injured players, or future stars – or it could be a competitive battleground for four players worthy of starting on the left-wing.
Dembélé’s future is the one that will continue to shape what the club does on the wing. Many fans are done with the Frenchman and fed up with all his injuries, but should the club actually sell a player while he is injured and potentially be at his lowest market value? Last summer we said that this year would be his last chance, but after another year on the sidelines, it feels like this next season is his last last chance.
I started this by talking about a Brazilian winger, and like the Ghost of Christmas Past, Neymar’s return is always looming. The money won’t work this summer, that’s for certain, but his desire to force a return won’t be going away any time soon. A new board could complicate the matter for the Brazilian next summer when he’ll be 29-years-old, but that won’t stop the rumors from persisting.
We didn’t talk about Neymar on the latest edition of The Barcelona Podcast, but regular listeners know he is a constant subject of debate.
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Dan Hilton is an American journalist, broadcaster, and current Editor-in-Chief of BarcaBlog. Extensive work as a play-by-play broadcaster, producer behind the scenes, and quite average player in his younger years has given him a well-rounded and informative perspective on the sport. Alongside BarcaBlog founder Francesc, Dan started The Barcelona Podcast in 2017.
