Barcelona want to sign Manchester City and Atletico Madrid stars in January as part of €55m operation

Since they arrived at the club back in September, Barcelona have been impressed by Joao Felix and Joao Cancelo. Both have bought into the club, and its hierarchy are very pleased with how they have been performing.

This is more the case of Cancelo, who has thrived since joining on a season-long loan from Manchester City. Understandably, Barcelona are keen to make his deal a permanent one, and it’s also the case of Felix, who is only with the Catalans until the end of the season too.

The expectation has been that Barcelona will try to sign both players again next summer, but MD now say that these operations could be brought forward to January. This could be done because club bosses anticipate that both players will continue to get better and better, which could raise their prices.

Barcelona value Felix at €40m, where Atletico Madrid want in excess of €80m. In order to avoid paying too much, a player-plus-cash deal could also be pursued, although it begs the question as to who could be included. In Cancelo’s case, Man City reportedly want €25m, whereas Barcelona are only prepared to pay €15m.

Barcelona are banking on the fact that both players only want to sign for them, which does look to be the case at this stage. However, they are negotiating from a position of weakness (because of their financial woes), so they could find it difficult to get Man City and Atleti to come down to their price.