Bernardo Silva, objective of the Barca yes or yes for 2023

• FC Barcelona wants the City midfielder to be the crack of the next summer market

• The Portuguese is the player that Xavi lacked and the Barça club is willing to make the effort

• He was missing a player: Xavi insists on having another crack in the midfield that brings maturity and arrival to the team

It was the great objective of the summer to reinforce the midfield. Bernardo Silva (28 years old) was in orbit of FC Barcelona practically until the last week of the market, but Barça prioritized other incorporations and finally the Portuguese midfielder, who tomorrow will face Spain in a Nations League match , returned to stay with the honey on the lips. But Xavi is clear, the Portuguese is still his main request to strengthen the team for next season and Barça is clear this time: Bernardo , yes or yes.

The Egarense coach is looking for a mature midfielder with an approach, who has the ability to understand the positional game and who gives more consistency to the team. In fact, last season, when Pedri was injured in April against Eintracht Frankfurt , Barça went flat. This year the squad has already improved a lot – a squad, as he himself described – but the coach himself let it slip after the market closed that “we have lacked a few more players”, although he quickly qualified and underlined that he was “very satisfied and without any complaints”, highlighting the teamwork with Mateu Alemany , director of football, and Jordi Cruyff , sports director.

The script is the same as in August: Barça will have to release important players to lower the wage bill and be able
to incorporate the Portuguese

Yes, it is true that the team has improved considerably in defense and in attack, thanks to the arrival of Robert Lewandowski , it has gained effectiveness and goals, but in games like Bayern ‘s it was understood why the coach insisted so much on incorporating a top profile to the center of the field, at the height of Pedri González .

The script, therefore, has not changed too much. Barça will have to sell an important player as an economic lever and will also have to get a substantial salary reduction, as the president of LaLiga, Javier Tebas , has already publicly recalled. In this aspect it will be necessary to see how the future of the three captains remains. Sergio Busquets ends his contract and will decide at the end of the season what he wants to do, although everything indicates that it will be his last campaign at FC Barcelona . Jordi Alba has one more year left and Piqué has to play 35% of the games this year so that his contract is automatically extended until 2024.

You already know the conditions

At the same time, at Manchester City they know first-hand Barcelona ‘s interest in their footballer, a key player for Pep Guardiola . In this case, despite the fact that Bernardo Silva is still an untouchable player, the door to his departure in the summer is not closed despite the fact that the Portuguese has a contract with the English until June 2025. The player is fine in Manchester , but Barcelona is a dream he has had since he was a child and he would get on the train without thinking about it. Of course, with some conditions because in the summer he already had a new disappointment that neither he nor his surroundings liked. For the second consecutive year, BarçaHe tried it out, asked for patience, but at no time did he receive a written offer. Neither him, nor City. So this time Barcelona will have to go all out from the start because they already know the conditions. Both those requested by the player, represented by Jorge Mendes , and those of the Manchester team, who are still delighted with Bernardo and if it were up to them they would even sign a renewal for him. Ferran Soriano , Txiki Begiristain and company will not let their footballer go for less than 80 million fixed euros, in addition to bonuses that bring the amount closer to 100 ‘kilos’.

City ‘s argument in this case is clear. Bernardo Silva is a starting player and they will have to invest heavily to find a replacement for him. The price they have stipulated to sell to players of this weight is 100 million euros; On the other hand, for players with less prominence, the amount left is over 60 million, as was the case of Ferran Torres to Barcelona himself (55 more variables) or Raheem Sterling to Chelsea (around 57).