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La Liga side Barcelona are willing to sell-off some first team players to acquire Inter Milan striker Lautaro Martinez.
The Argentine is Barcelona’s top target for the summer as they look to prepare themselves for a future without 33-year-old Luis Suárez, but La Blaugrana are no longer blessed with a seemingly infinite pool of money to fund their shopping sprees.
Lautaro has been persistently linked with a switch to Camp Nou following impressive performances for Antonio Conte’s side this season, having registered 16 goals in 31 appearances across all competitions.
It is easy to understand why Ivan Zamorano is so optimistic about former club Inter holding on to Lautaro Martinez – in spite of Barcelona’s intense interest in the striker.
“I’m convinced he’ll stay,” the Chilean told Mision TUDN on Monday. “Barca have to put €100 million on the table; that’s the minimum Inter will accept for Lautaro, even if [Inter coach Antonio] Conte likes [Arturo] Vidal.
“But Barcelona have financial problems that won’t allow them to take Lautaro, so that’s why I think he’ll stay. I have no doubts.”
Indeed, Barca are getting very creative in their attempts to land the Argentina attacker, who has a buy-out clause of €111m (£97m/$121m) that expires on July 15.
As already revealed by Goal,the Blaugrana would like to swap Nelson Semedo with Manchester City’s Joao Cancelo, and then immediately give the latter to Inter in order to reduce their outlay on Martinez.
However, Barca are also trying desperately to raise as much as capital as possible for the summer transfer window, which is why they would listen to offers for every single member of the first-team squad bar Lionel Messi, Frenkie de Jong and Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
That means that the board would even be open to offloading Ousmane Dembele and Antoine Griezmann, which represents a remarkable state of affairs given they are two of the statement signings of Josep Maria Bartomeu’s tenure.
Dembele’s compatriot Samuel Umtiti is also in a similar boat in light of his own injury issues over the past two years. Essentially, clubs are reluctant to take a gamble on the centre-half for precisely the same reason Barca are willing to let him leave.
Of course, Barca’s primary objective in terms of outgoings this summer was finding buyer for the their record signing, Philippe Coutinho.