Barcelona are determined to sign Marcus Rashford before the winter transfer window closes next week, and new steps have been taken in negotiations. Previously, talks had only taken place between the Catalan club and the player’s agent, but now, all parties are at the table.
At this stage, Barcelona are not able to meet Manchester United’s demands for a loan deal, given that they do not have the salary space to pay 100% of Rashford’s wages. The way that they can do this is to offload Ansu Fati, but despite the club pushing hard to convince the young attacker to leave, he continues to stand his ground for now.
While work is being done on that avenue, The Telegraph (via Sport) have now reported that Barcelona and Man United have entered into negotiations for the first time – these discussions are being done through Dwaine Maynard, who is the English international’s brother and representative.
Rashford is not in the plans of Man United head coach Ruben Amorim, but despite this, the Premier League giants will not allow a deal to be done unless the player’s full salary is covered for the second half of the season. Barcelona have already communicated that his is currently impossible, and because of their well-documented financial woes, they are only able to cover 50%.
Barcelona do have ambitions to sign Rashford on a permanent basis, but for now, it is a loan without an option to buy that is being discussed with Man United. In the summer, talks are expected irrespective of whether a temporary arrangement is organised in the next five days, and according to the report, the Premier League side would sell for €40m. However, they also want him to be re-valued during the second half of the current campaign, which won’t happen unless he leaves.
