Barcelona keeping close tabs on Spanish right-back duo – report

Barcelona’s troubles at right-back are well documented by this point. After the departure of Dani Alves, the club has tried Sergi Roberto, Nelson Semedo, Aleix Vidal, Sergino Dest, Hector Bellerin to varying success.

They have been unable to find the right profile for their starting lineup, though. Their search continues, with Toni Juanmarti claiming that Barcelona are keeping a ‘close eye’ on Spanish duo Pedro Porro and Arnau Martinez.

Porro’s stocks have been rising every since his move to Manchester City in 2019. He was loaned out in successive years to Real Valladolid and Sporting CP before eventually completing a permanent move to the latter this summer.

As a largely offensive right-back, the 23-year-old has four assists in the Liga Portugal this season, averaging 2.2 chances creating per game.

Arnau, on the other hand, has a slightly different profile. He can play both, as a centre-back, and a right-back, but has been deployed as the latter for the most part. Across 11 games this season, he has two goals and an assist playing for Girona.

Barcelona would like to sign one of the two during the winter transfer window, but face a ton of financial problems. Club president Joan Laporta, himself, has confirmed that, as it stands, they will not be able to sign players in January.

“According to La Liga’s FFP, we cannot sign players in January. We are trying our best to persuade the league to be more flexible,” he said. 

It seems unlikely that Laporta and co. will pull any more levers to sign players in the winter, especially after the disastrous end to their Champions League campaign.

That said, they can, of course, raise money through player sales. Memphis Depay is one of the assets linked with an exit, but has set two conditions for his departure.

Should they fail to make fresh moves in January, we can expect the Blaugranes to work on contract extensions for the likes of Marcos Alonso, Alejandro Balde, and Ousmane Dembele.