Bundesliga club slaps €35 million asking price on Barcelona, Liverpool target

Barcelona have come under deep scrutiny over the last few years for poor scouting and their inability to recruit players before they blow up on the big stage.

Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele were brought in to replace Neymar Jr, but cost the club well over €270 million. Similarly, Antoine Griezmann’s signing was always considered to be a result of horrible planning.

Last month, it was reported that Barcelona were keen on signing RB Salzburg striker Karim Adeyemi. Today, it has come to light, by Patrick Berger that Adeyemi is happy to leave Salzburg, and the club have slapped an asking price of €30-35 million for him.

At 19, Adeyemi had clubs interested in him this June, but his stocks have gone way up since his back-to-back Man of the Match performances in the UEFA Champions League.

The German boasts of incredible pace and footwork, and often leaves the opposition defence bamboozled. He won three(!) penalties against Sevilla in a 1-1 draw, and another one against Lille in a 2-1 win. Despite missing one from the spot on matchday 1, he scored two against the following gameweek.

Adeyemi does, however, prefer a move to Germany, where Borussia Dortmund are chasing his signature.

Writer’s opinion

It has been reported that Barcelona have €16 million to spend in the January transfer window, and could look towards Divock Origi on a permanent deal. Which could, in turn, provide funding for Liverpool to pursue Adeyemi.

This sounds way too similar to their ideas of 2018, when a ton of money from the Philippe Coutinho deal went directly in their pursuit of Virgil van Dijk.

Instead, Barça should look at loan targets for the winter transfer window, and then turn their heads towards big targets for the summer. Erling Haaland is one name that pops up way too often, but that would be next-to-impossible deal to pursue given the price tag.

In that case, Joan Laporta and co. should look at Adeyemi as a forward who might be available for cheap with a very high potential.