After making a series of heavy transfers to the club and facing a lot of criticisms by the fans over the defense of Barcelona, finally, the Catalan giants seem to be more concerned with their defense this time. Their central defender options have fallen short, they have two best center backs in the form of Clement Lenglet and Gerard Pique, who is in the limelight of his career.
But, Umtiti never really likely to return to his glorious form before the 2018 World Cup injury and still he is not a feasible option at all for the long run. While Barca has loaned out Jean-Clair Todibo and their backup option Ronald Araujo also remains inured, so this time it seems Barca wants to bring another center back who can possibly replace Pique in future.
For this, Barcelona has already identified their former player Eric Garcia as their ideal defensive transfer target and wants to land him this summer. According to Goal, Eric Garcia is their top defensive target, now is just 19-year old, a La Masia graduate, who left the club for Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.
His contract expires in 2021, and the Catalans want to bring Garcia back to Camp Nou while Guardiola wants to renew his contract at the club. The guy has been impressive after the lockdown, starting every game for Manchester City and has been preferred over John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi in important games against Liverpool, Arsenal.
Undoubtedly, he is a talented player who knows how to play the Barca kind of football which Pep follows at Manchester City. But, he is based out of Barcelona and Eric Garcia is an ideal player to bring in at such harsh times, but City wants to offer a new contract although as Goal points out, Garcia may consider his future at the club if Guardiola decides to leave the Premier League club.
Previously, when Pep was asked about Garcia’s future at the club he said:
“We have one more year – if they want him they must call Txiki (Begiristain, sporting director),” he said.
“We’ll try to convince him to stay here for many years. I’m confident he will stay, but it’s his decision.”
Also, it’s been speculated that Manchester City on the verge of signing Bournemouth defender Nathan Ake for €45m, so maybe they have found out an alternative for the Spaniard already. Overall, if Eric Garcia comes to Barcelona, he will have years to develop and prove himself at the club.
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