Barcelona crisis could benefit Everton
Yes it’s that story again, Barcelona are a club in crisis. Certainly according to the media anyway, with huge debts, a team struggling to come close to matching the illustrious achievements of recent years and whose greatest player, Lionel Messi, almost left last summer. So once more the question is does this situation at the Catalan club represent an opportunity for Everton?
The predicament at the Camp Nou might well present chances for clubs like Everton to sign a few of Barca’s players on the cheap this summer, especially as the Catalan and Merseyside clubs have a good past working relationship.
The football and financial problems at the Spanish giants, which have been massively increased by the Covid situation, have been well documented over the past few months and culminated in the Messi will he stay go or will he go saga in the summer.
In the end the Argentinian superstar stayed at the club, which has been his home for most of his life, at least for another season anyway.
Messi’s contract is up this summer and both he and Barcelona will have a big decision to make about what to do next. Several big European clubs are allegedly interested, including of course Manchester City managed by his past mentor Pep Guardiola.
But aside from the future of Messi, if the Catalan club have to significantly cut costs to bring their huge debts under control – and that certainly seems to be the case – then they may have to sell a number of players to help them do so. So who of these potential sales might be of interest to the Toffees?
The first player to mention is a young attacking footballer who has been very much a fringe player and in and out of this Barcelona side; Portugal forward Trincao.
This player isn’t a headline grabber, but he’s a 21-year-old right-sided attacker who just might be the sort of young talent the Toffees need to look at to supplement their attacking options.
He’s obviously considered one for the future at Camp Nou, but Barcelona will probably be forced to offload these sorts of players to trim squad numbers and crucially their wage bill. A player like him might well then be going very cheap this summer.
Trincao is confortable on his left foot, could offer genuine width and both a creative and goal-scoring threat on the right to balance Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison if the Blues wanted to play a three-man attack or have that option on the bench.
Everton have been looking for more right-sided forwards for a while now and although James Rodriguez often plays there he tends to drift inside and as eveyone knows doesn’t offer natural width on the flank.
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The other current option is Alex Iwobi and while he will work hard and carries the ball well from midfield, he lacks real pace and critically he doesn’t score enough goals. In addition, his final ball is still sometimes too inconsistent.
The other player I’d like to mention is one who I think has been tentatively linked in the past with Everton, Danish international Martin Braithwaite.
Braithwaite is also very likely to be shipped out of there is a fire-sale at Barcelona. He’s 29 and has again had limited chances at the Camp Nou, unsurprisingly.
Although not a top draw player, Braithwaite is particularly effective playing centre-forwward and could be a very useful alternative and deputy for Calvert-Lewin. He has plenty of experience and can also operate on the wings as well. I would see him as an alternative to Josh King if he fails to impress over the remainder of this season.
Well these are a couple of players that just might be worth Everton running the rule over and if Barcelona do have to get rid of some of their squad at knock-down prices this summer then there might just be a bargain or two to be had.
Remember not many of us knew much about Andre Gomes or Lucas Digne before they arrived from Barcelona two years ago. And while Gomes hasn’t fulfilled expectations, Digne has been a brilliant buy. More of the same this summer would do very nicely.