FC Barcelona are desperately looking for a left-back on the transfer market. The candidate list is long, but you are looking for a specific role. Not only that makes the rumors about David Alaba unlikely.
Let’s start with a little quiz: From which year do the following cover stories of MundoDeportivo originate?
Now the resourceful reader may already have noticed that even for Spanish sports daily newspapers this would be an astonishing amount of Alaba cover stories for a single transfer summer. In fact, the above headlines, in order from top to bottom, are from 2012, 2015, 2016, 2018, and the brand new 2019.
And what do all these headlines have in common – apart from the name Alaba and the fact that Barca is supposed to be interested? Right: David Alaba did not switch to FC Barcelona. He did not do that in 2012, not in 2015, not in 2016, not in 2018, and he will not do that in summer 2019 either. The rumours about the Austrian are persistent, but already at second glance they don’t make sense anymore.
This does not mean that FC Barcelona would not like to have Alaba in its ranks. He just isn’t the player that coach Ernesto Valverde needs on the one hand and whose transfer is feasible on the other.
What Barca is much more looking for and needing this summer is a young, viable backup for Jordi Alba. The 30-year-old is undisputed at the rear left and has also had a largely outstanding season. But only as far as possible, because at the end of the season Alba had to be aware of the countless kilometres of the long football year at every step.
Barcelona started the season with no real alternative to Alba and that made itself felt. The run-intensive play of the “squirrel”, as it is called in the fan-scene because of its height and the nimble legs gladly, made it an almost irreplaceable performer, however, cost also noticeably resources with progressive duration. The low point: The defeat against FC Liverpool in the Champions League.
Alba experienced a bad evening at Anfield Road (SOCCERSCORE mark 5.5): First he started the attack with his head unchallenged to 0:1, then lost the decisive duel before 0:2. And yet the “squirrel” could still have become the great hero, but he failed at the score of 0:1 to Liverpool keeper Alisson.
“For me personally, it was the best season of my career – apart from these two games. I gave everything, but sometimes that wasn’t enough,” Alba said. It was only human, he added.
And because Alba is just a human being and not a machine, the list of potential new additions to the left side has been growing and growing for months. This ranges from relatively obvious transfers such as the return of Alejandro Grimaldo (SL Benfica) or the promotion of indigenous plants such as Juan Miranda or Marc Cucurella to quite frank thought games such as a commitment by the Augsburg player Philipp Max.
But one thing at a time: In fact, there were and are two options in the Catalan ranks that question the necessity of a transfer. On the one hand there was Marc Cucurella, but he has already been sold to FC Getafe again, after Barca got him from SD Eibar by a buy-back clause. There the young defender had developed, but mainly as an offensive force, because he played many games as a left wing player.
Miranda is still playing in his own youth at the moment and is performing well at the U19 European Championship in Armenia. Miranda could well stay – especially if Jean-Clair Todibo really goes – but then as central defender number four and emergency nail for the left defensive side.
There are only three rumours that really make sense at the moment that are all about the Alba backup job: Grimaldo, Raphael Guerreiro (Borussia Dortmund) and Junior Firpo (Real Betis).
Grimaldo, however, has developed well since his departure from FC Barcelona and is a regular in Portugal. It is therefore difficult to imagine that he would want to sit on the bench behind Alba. At the age of 25, Guerreiro might also be looking for a somewhat different task. In addition, both tend to be more in the middle of the game – but Barca often pushes the left wing player there, and the left wing player should tend to be more broad.
What remained was the 22-year-old Firpo, who made a meteoric ascent with Real Betis and made his debut in September 2018 for Spain’s U21 – for which FC Barcelona, by the way, for the first time in their history, did not provide a single player at the recent European Championship.
FC Barcelona would therefore like to add a young Spaniard like Firpo to the team. The own youth work is currently lagging behind, the squad is peppered with legionnaires: There are still three players of Spanish origin from the possible gala eleven of the coming season: the “squirrel” Alba, Gerard Pique and Sergio Busquets.
According to SPORT, FC Barcelona asked Firpo for a cooling-off period. Not only because most of the club is in Japan, but also because there are a lot of disagreements within the club at the moment. The sporting leadership is about to undergo a major rebuild: the contract of Sports Director Pep Segura was terminated by mutual agreement, as the Catalans announced on Friday.
According to media reports, Eric Abidal will take over more functions. He is considered a proponent of Firpos and would probably initiate the transfer. It should cost around 25 million euros – that would be a bargain for a young Spaniard with the potential to develop, whose profile is very similar to that of Alba. A squirrel 2.0, so to speak.
