05/12/2020 - 19:58
- Clarín.com
- sports
There are two reasons why trumpets do not sound to announce that Lautaro Martínez will be Lionel Messi's teammate at Barcelona. One is that the market is not open to formalize the transfers, something that will only take place when the Leagues are over. Another, that the closure of airports and the closure of air traffic delay the face-to-face meeting of the leaders of both clubs. Only that.
There will be a gigantic carom in which everyone will win: the player, who will fulfill his desire to play in Barcelona; Barcelona, which ensures quality reinforcement; Inter, who had no reason to retain their scorer and mitigates the loss; Manchester City, which appears in the triangulation; and even Racing and Liniers from Bahia Blanca, who will receive money for the training rights of Lautaro.
Inter had appraised Martínez at 111 million euros. The Italians knew that it was a priceless figure for the times to come. Barcelona knew it, that it counter-offered 60 to the 80 who had lowered the Milanese. In that base they began to negotiate and there appeared the multiple exchange.
Barcelona will part with the Chilean Arturo Vidal, who will return to be managed by Antonio Conte, as at Juventus. He will also release right back Nelson Semedo, who will go to Manchester City, requested by Pep Guardiola. City, in turn, returns the also right-back Portuguese Joao Cancelo who bought him last season from Inter. And the Catalans closed the operation paying the 60 that it had offered. Bingo.
The curious thing about engineering is that the person who managed the entire operation was the Portuguese businessman Jorge Mendes, representative of Semedo and Cancelo. But also from Cristiano Ronaldo. Mendes, who would say, brings a hitter with an unpredictable projection to Messi.
Lautaro Martínez celebrates a goal for Inter. (Photo: EFE)
Inter had offered Martinez to double his salary of 2 million euros per year for the contract that expires in 2023, as a maximum offer to continue in the club. Barcelona will pay you between 5 and 7 million, according to the bonus, for a link of five seasons, until 2026.
Barcelona, in turn, has almost another operation tied, also through the swap. He will stay with Bosnian midfielder Miralem Pjanic and give Juventus Arthur. The two players have the same appraisal, at 60 million euros. But since the Brazilian wants to stay with Messi although the lights of Cristiano and Dybala are also seductive, there may be variations in that hand-to-hand. One possibility is that Barcelona will hand over to French central defender Jean Claire Todibo, whom he bought last year from Toulouse for a million euros, has loaned it to Schalke and is valued at 20 million. With that money, he would compensate the Brazilian. But since he would lose Semedo in the “Martínez operation”, he would be left without a right back and then, in addition to those 20 million, he would accept De Sciglio, Juve's side.
"The best thing that happened to Barcelona is quarantine," says a voice close to the Camp Nou through the cell phone. It is that the parate allowed the board to attenuate the fires of the internal dispute that caused the exoneration of six members of the Board and dedicate themselves to the efforts. And with the leading team in the League. Thus, they pressed for Martínez and negotiated for Pjanic while leaving the fruit of dessert for the end: Neymar.
With the two incorporations almost closed, Barcelona guarantees the succession of the Uruguayan Luis Suárez and finds variants in the middle zone, never rectified since the departures of Iniesta and Xavi.
In his second season at Inter, Martínez has 17 goals in 49 games, almost the same as in his four years at Racing, where he played 48 games and scored 22 times. Surely at the beginning he will have to live with Suárez: a task to be handled by coach Setien, who also has Griezmann on the squad for youth Ansu Fati and Dembelé, soon to reappear after his umpteenth injury. Assaulting the Champions League with those forwards will not be a utopia.
Lionel Messi, on his return to training. (Photo: AP)
With Pjanic he has relief for Sergio Busquets as central midfielder or a companion to play indoors, as Xavi or Iniesta did. Without being exactly the same, the Bosnian has a gaming landscape and is a good organizer. He arrived at Juventus in 2016-17 and with both Allegri and Sarri as coaches he played "double five" with Khedira and in the last tournament as five classic (as Barcelona plays), with Matuidi and the former Boca Bentancur at his sides.
For now, Barcelona has a hole in the background if Semedo leaves. If De Sciglio arrives he has a natural side but his performance will have to be seen in a different style than Juventus. There is Sergi Roberto, a natural midfielder who should have reinvented himself in the band. Of course: if he loses Todibo, there are almost no centerbacks behind Piqué-Lenglet, because the club would also part with Samuel Umtiti.
And Neymar is missing. Nothing less.