Barcelona ready to let out-of-favour defender leave on free transfer

Barcelona continue to struggle in their bid to offload unwanted defender Samuel Umtiti this summer.

It has become obvious that the 27-year-old is no longer in the plans of manager Ronald Koeman and the club are intent on getting him off the books so as to trim their wage bill. But, all efforts until now have gone in vain.

Talks of a mutual contract termination were rejected by Umtiti, while he is also not considering the offers already on the table, which led to Barça considering the option of unilaterally terminating his deal.

However, the Blaugrana are still looking for ways to avoid such a scenario. And, as per the latest report from SPORT, the Catalan giants are even willing to waive off any transfer fees and let him leave on a free, so that they get him off the wage bill.

It is stated that France or Italy could be Umtiti’s next destinations, with interest coming from OGC Nice, AS Monaco and AS Roma. However, the 2018 FIFA World Cup winner is only willing to leave Camp Nou on a loan deal. Furthermore, he wants to join a club that can offer Champions League football, complicating matters again.

The report further adds that Umtiti has already turned down an offer from an unnamed Turkish club despite being offered a luring financial package. Barcelona, though, remain intent on seeing him through the exit doors before the transfer window closes and have urged to him accept one of the offers that are currently there.

But, patience is starting to run very thin and if there is no response from the defender, Barcelona, as iterated earlier, will consider the possibility of terminating his contract, even if it opens them up to legal actions.

With just over a week left in the transfer window, it will certainly be interesting to see where Umtiti ends up.