Barcelona slap €15 million asking price on Brazilian

Barcelona kick-started their road to rebuild in June 2020 after selling mainstays like Ivan Rakitic, Arturo Vidal, Nelson Semedo, and Luis Suarez. It helped them free up their wage bill while allowing accommodation for young guns like Riqui Puig, Pedri, Ronald Araujo, and Sergino Dest among others. Still, there is a lot that needs to be done, and as it stands, more players will need to be offloaded in the coming months.

One of those players will be second-choice goalkeeper Neto Murara. Some weeks back, it was reported that the Brazilian no longer wanted to continue at Barcelona and had asked for a way out to Ronald Koeman. On the back of the same, Marca reports that Barça will accept nothing lower than €15 million for Neto as he continues to be linked to Arsenal.

Arsenal, much like the Catalan giants, are under a massive rebuild themselves. Among spots of concern is their backup goalkeeper. The club signed Runar Alex Runarsson from Dijon after the sale of Emiliano Martinez in the summer, but after his disastrous outing against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup, the Gunners pursued Mathew Ryan of Brighton & Hove Albion on loan.

At 31, Neto is more than experienced, having served his time with mega-clubs like Valencia, Fiorentina, and Juventus before joining Barça. He filled in for the then-injured Marc-Andre ter Stegen during the start of this season, putting in some excellent display against Real Madrid, Celta Vigo, and Ferencvaros. However, his game-costing error against Deportivo Alaves was the first and final straw, after which ter Stegen was rushed back on the pitch.

Since then, Neto has made only three appearances, two in the Copa del Rey, and one in the Champions League. His starting spot for the cup was taken away against Granada as his German counter-part got to don the gloves in the Copa del Rey.