Following the news of Sergio Busquets\u2019 exit at the end of the season, Barcelona naturally have to enter the market for a new midfielder.<\/p>\n
Coach Xavi Hernandez wants to bring in a new player who can operate in the pivot position and complement the interior midfielders.<\/p>\n
For a while, his \u2018wet dream\u2019 has been Real Sociedad starlet Martin Zubimendi. However, Bar\u00e7a have practically ruled out the option due to his hefty \u20ac60 million release clause.<\/p>\n
This leaves Ilkay Gundogan as a valuable option for Barcelona. And according to Javi Miguel (h\/t FCB World), the operation is taking shape, with Xavi finally receiving the green light from Gundogan to become the next player for Barcelona in the new season.<\/p>\n
Barcelona were waiting for Gundogan\u2019s approval for Xavi, who has been very picky when it comes to signing a midfielder. He is aware of the fact that Gundogan can operate in the defensive midfield spot, but he wanted a specialist in the position.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the Gundogan operation could be on, with Barcelona likely to hand him a three-year contract. He will earn less than what he currently does at Manchester City, which poses an issue given the fact that the player was holding out for a higher salary package.<\/p>\n
Other top clubs across Europe have taken note of Gundogan\u2019s situation and are likely to pursue him in the coming, given that he is available as a free agent.<\/p>\n
But with Barcelona offering a lucrative sporting project, it appears the German international is ready to pack his bags and move to Camp Nou, where he will likely serve as the short-term replacement for Busquets, before the club eventually signs a new midfielder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Following the news of Sergio Busquets\u2019 exit at the end of the season, Barcelona naturally have to enter the market for a new midfielder. Coach Xavi Hernandez wants to bring in a new player who can operate in the pivot position and complement the interior midfielders. For a while, his \u2018wet dream\u2019 has been Real […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1162,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161\/revisions\/1162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}