While the noise around Barcelona this week has centred on Julian Alvarez, Rodri and Ronald Araujo’s sudden exit to Liverpool, a quieter piece of business has been taking shape in the background, conducted between two sporting directors who happen to be close friends.
Marca, through Luis F. Rojo, report that Paris Saint Germain and Barcelona have been negotiating for several days over Ferran Torres, with Deco and Luis Campos handling the talks discreetly.
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The Valencian is now expected to play in France next season barring a significant late turn.
The player’s side is already reportedly settled.
Marca report that Torres has reached an agreement with PSG and committed to four seasons at the club, leaving only the club to club negotiation outstanding.
PSG are expected to pay a fee close to €50m, with the exact figure and any add ons still being finalised. Sources close to the talks believe an announcement could come within days.
The timing is deliberate.
Barcelona were scheduled to meet Torres, who has also been linked with Liverpool recently, on Wednesday, the date their World Cup winners return to first team training, but his representatives have already informed the club of his desire to move to Paris.
All parties would rather have the transfer completed before that meeting is needed.
The groundwork was laid earlier.
The possibility first surfaced during the World Cup without confirmation from either the player or the French club, and Torres addressed it himself in an interview in the United States last week, saying he had a contract at Barcelona but that in football you never know.
He went further, suggesting the club needed to show they wanted him and come and negotiate, with his current deal expiring in a year and no extension offered.
Hansi Flick, asked about the situation, offered nothing beyond waiting to see how it developed.
For Liverpool supporters, the interest lies in what happens next in the other direction.
DaveOCKOP.com exclusively revealed that Liverpool and PSG have reached an agreement in principle for Bradley Barcola, with the fee believed to be in the region of €128m and add ons more achievable than those attached to earlier proposals.
Nothing has been signed, but the breakthrough followed weeks in which PSG had held firm at a valuation of around €170m.
Two things are happening at once in Paris, then, and it is worth resisting the temptation to draw a straight line between them.
Barcola has two years left on his contract and is not expected to renew, PSG have already added Maghnes Akliouche from Monaco, and Luis Enrique’s attacking department is being reshaped in more than one place at the same time.
What is clear is that Barcelona are about to lose a forward in a window that has already cost them a captain, and that PSG are moving quickly on both fronts.