Aston Villa's Marcus Rashford
Aston Villa's Marcus Rashford
Barcelona's sporting director Deco has outlined that, in the first instance, his intentions will be to ensure that those in the existing squad are prioritised this summer - but, amid links with Aston Villa loanee Marcus Rashford, the Blaugrana will be on the look out for ways to potentially strengthen their squad.
Barca suffered disappointment in the semi-finals of the Champions League, but they've already secured the Copa del Rey at the expense of El Clasico rivals Real Madrid. They're also a result away from winning La Liga ahead of Los Blancos, who trail Barca by seven points with three games to play.
Attentions will then turn to the summer. Rashford, who has spent the second half of this season at Villa and has returned ten goal contributions, looks to have no future at all at boyhood club Manchester United and a new club is on the agenda, although his eye-watering wages worth in excess of £320,000 a week could make things tricky.
Rashford has missed the last three games since Villa succumbed to Manchester City and is unlikely to feature for the Lions again with the stricken forward only eligible to play Tottenham Hotspur this Friday and not so against parent club United on the final weekend of the season.
It's claimed that Rashford's desire is to make the switch to the Camp Nou this summer and unite with their attacking stars Raphinha and Lamine Yamal, in a summer when England counterpart Trent Alexander-Arnold will also be moving to Spain. Rashford is working with agent Pini Zahavi and is reportedly willing to take a reduction in his wages to seal the move.
Deco, the former Portugal and Barca midfielder, has now spoken of what may lie ahead for the Catalans in the summer - they have operated in recent times with a '1 and 1' policy, whereby, because of financial restrictions, they've had to ensure they remained within the rules by only making signings after sanctioning sales.
"I said last year we couldn't lose anyone and I think it's the same now," he told ESPN. "If we can improve, that's always an option, but the key is to consolidate what we have for the coming years. Suddenly we feel quite dependent on Raphinha and Lamine.
"Maybe we need similar players, a solution for them [when they're not available], but the squad is quite balanced and we have a lot of good players coming through the youth teams as well."
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