Barcelona have identified two midfielders as possible replacements for Busquets – Romero

With the January transfer window not far away, Barcelona are drafting their plans for the mid-season trading period and journalist Gerard Romero has given an insight into the same on his recent Twitch stream.

According to Romero, Barcelona’s January transfer window operations will be conditioned based on the Financial Fair Play situation, and for them to be able to sign new players, the Catalans will have to offload players.

Once they have finalised on the possible outgoings, Barcelona will decide on the position that needs to be strengthened as they could consider signing a new right-back, a pivot midfielder or even an interior midfielder.

Talking in detail about the plans for the pivot position, currently occupied by club captain Sergio Busquets, Romero stated that Barcelona have identified two possible options to replace the veteran star in the form of Ruben Neves of Wolves and Real Sociedad’s Martin Zubimendi.

The links to Neves and Zubimendi are certainly not new, with both names doing the rounds as potential targets for the Blaugrana for months now.

Zubimendi is said to be Xavi’s preferred option but the 23-year-old will cost €60 million in the January window – his release clause amount – which Real Sociedad see as non-negotiable. So, for Barcelona to sign the Spaniard, a big sale would be needed in January.

As for Neves, Romero claims that the total transfer operation could cost around €65-70 million, but Wolves would be open to accepting the payments in installments. So, Barça would have to pay only €25 million in January should they sign him.

However, Xavi is said to be unconvinced that Neves can play as a pivot and sees him more as a player who can play alongside Busquets. So, in case Barcelona sign the Portuguese international, the manager wants his current captain to renew for another year.

As iterated earlier, any move would hinge on Barcelona dealing with their Financial Fair Play issues and making the necessary player sales in order to be in a position to bring in new players.