Barcelona president Joan Laporta has dominated out spending a big switch payment to signal unsettled Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva.
Silva has been one of City’s most necessary gamers throughout a concentrated interval of success since a £43.5m transfer from Monaco in 2017.
During that point, the Portuguese has gained 4 Premier League titles and 5 home cups in 5 and a half seasons. He was additionally named City’s participant of the 12 months for 2018/19 and has twice been within the PFA Premier League workforce of the 12 months – most not too long ago final season.
But Silva, now 28, has been reconsidering his City future since 2020. The former Benfica expertise first grew to become unsettled throughout the first UK Covid-19 lockdown, admitting he felt ‘alone’. Despite success on the pitch, it appears he has by no means fairly managed to shake his uneasiness off it.
“I’m 28 years old, I’ll be 29 in the summer, and I have two more years on my Manchester City contract. My contract would end at 31. I won’t hide that my goal in the coming years, if something good happens elsewhere, will probably be to move to a new project,” he informed Portuguese publication Record in a telling current interview.
Barcelona are the membership which were most persistently linked with Silva all through the previous few years and he has been near leaving City previously.
90min understands that the Catalans stay thinking about pursuing Silva in 2023 and have made him a prime goal as soon as extra. However, any strategy would rely on it being financially attainable.
Fast ahead to now, Laporta has harassed the significance of the funds at play, declaring that Barça won’t half with bucketloads of money to signal the participant, who signed a six-year contract in 2019.
“We will not spend €80m to sign Bernardo Silva from Man City, that’s for sure,” he informed Cadena SER, earlier than additionally fielding a query on star striker Erling Haaland: “He’s playing for Man City now – we have Lewandowski in that position, Robert is doing great.”
Barça coach Xavi has beforehand mentioned of Silva: “I love him as a player. He understands everything and has an amazing ability to make decisions. He’s a very important player for Pep [Guardiola] and he makes a difference on the pitch.”