Barcelona will offer less than €100 million to Manchester City for midfield star

According to Mundo Deportivo, Barcelona are considering signing Bernardo Silva this summer only if they sell Frenkie de Jong.

Despite Manchester City’s reluctance to part with the Portuguese ace, Barça president Joan Laporta and the midfielder’s agent Jorge Mendes are interested in making the deal happen and have spoken about strategies to get the deal over the line.

De Jong has been linked with an exit all summer long, with Manchester United and Chelsea having been credited with an interest in the 25-year-old. While the midfielder has expressed no desire to leave, Barça remain open to a sale and would ideally want €70-80 million to sign him.

If they succeed in parting ways with the Dutchman, Barça plan to replace him with Silva. The 27-year-old is reportedly keen on making the jump to Camp Nou and is understood to have informed Manchester City that he wants to leave for the Catalans.

Silva’s agent, Jorge Mendes, is also determined to take the midfielder to Barcelona as per the report. And, when he met with Barça president Joan Laporta earlier this month, the name of the Portuguese playmaker was discussed in length.

It is claimed that both parties agreed that a transfer can be carried out only if de Jong leaves the club. However, any move would not be easy as convincing Man City could be tricky and meeting their €100 million valuation will make things only harder.

The majority of funds that Barcelona hope to recoup from de Jong’s sale could be diverted to sign priority target Robert Lewandowski from Bayern Munich. So, they will need to convince Manchester City to lower their asking price for Silva.

As per the report, Barcelona intend to pay less than the €100 million figure that the Premier League champions have demanded.

The report adds that Laporta and Mendes discussed the possibility of a deal in which they would not have to spend €100 million while spreading the payment to the Citizens over two to three seasons.

Convincing Manchester City to accept such terms will be not easy by any means. And for any of it start moving, Barça would first need to sell de Jong.