Barcelona eyeing move for Manchester City star as ‘Plan B’ to reinforce the defence

Following the exit of Gerard Pique, Barcelona will take another dive into the market in the hopes of signing a centre-back. While they currently have four natural CBs in the squad, the quartet have struggled with fitness this season, and do not boast of a lot of experience, either.

Of the four, Andreas Christensen is the oldest at 26 years old, while the rest of them are U-24 players.

Inigo Martinez is reportedly Xavi’s preference to reinforce the backline in January, but his transfer largely depends on the transfer fee. Athletic Club are not ready to part ways with the Spaniard easily, even though his contract clocks up in the summer of 2023.

As such, Barcelona are planning a Plan B operation in the form of Aymeric Laporte, according to SPORT. The coaching staff are fans of the player, and believe his age and profile are perfect for the team.

Barça have tried to pair Pique with a left-footed centre-back since the departure of Javier Mascherano. Samuel Umtiti, Thomas Vermaelen, and most recently, Clement Lenglet are players who have taken the mantle, but to no long-term success.

This summer, the club parted ways with both Umtiti and Lenglet, leaving no ‘lefty’ in defence. While Eric Garcia is more than comfortable playing on that side of the defence, Laporte would add much-needed diversity to Barcelona.

This is far from the first time the Catalans have been linked with Laporte. In fact, the rumours first started brewing while he was still at Athletic Club.

The report suggests that after six seasons with Manchester City, the Spaniard is open to a switch. He could have joined Barça as early as last year, but the two clubs failed to see eye-to-eye on the financial side of things.

Laporte is the first-choice centre-back at City, as one would expect, and has a contract that ties him to the club until 2025.

And while Pep Guardiola has admitted in the past that he would not hold back a player who wants to leave, the Manchester outfit will not make Laporte’s exit easy at all.