Barcelona and Neymar have been making the headlines this season for different reasons. For the Spanish giants, it’s all attributable to the rot that’s been brought on by the civil war brewing in the Boardroom while for Neymar it’s all due to the player’s repeated attempts to rejoin the club, a move that’s been consistent all this while with Messi’s desire to see his former team mate reunited with him to reignite their once dazzling partnership.
However, the latest report infers that the Catalan giants may not be able to facilitate this as they can no longer afford to sign the Brazilian this summer, according to Lluís Canut and Xavi Lemus at CatRadio who are now saying that Barca “have ruled out” signing Neymar and will instead focus on bringing in Lautaro Martinez and renewing Lionel Messi’s contract instead.
Although the club does not know as yet the full scale of the financial imponderables they will take from the coronavirus pandemic, they are nonetheless are aware it will affect their summer transfer plans in no small measure.
It seems now that Barca’s priorities are bringing in Lautaro to replace Luis Suarez, whom they plan to offload, and extending Messi’s contract that is due to expire soon in 2021.
There is also news that the Spanish champions would like to renew goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s contract but have not struck an agreement with the German goalkeeper just yet.
The report also says that a contract renewal is in line for Nelson Semedo, although this is obviously an item of priority at this point in time.