Chelsea are creeping closer to securing the signature of young Barcelona prospect Ilaix Moriba, who wants to leave the Catalan giants this summer.
Moriba made his La Liga debut in February in a 5-1 win over Alaves, with the Guinean youngster marking the occasion with an assist, setting up Francisco Trincao, who is now on loan at Wolves.
The central midfielder is believed to be one of the most exciting young talents coming through in Europe at the moment, though his time at the Nou Camp looks set to be cut short despite it being his favourite club.
Several clubs are interested in signing Moriba, who changed his allegiance from the Spanish national team to the Guinean just a few months ago, and are keen to get the deal over the line before the transfer window slams shut on August 31 .
It is widely known that Moriba wants to leave Barca, with Chelsea the club most likely to bring him in.
According to Mundo Deportivo, the 18-year-old was seen in London over this weekend in what was, presumably, a short break to negotiate with the Blues.
If Thomas Tuchel’s men are to be successful in their bid for Moriba then they will need to see off the challenge from Bundesliga side RB Leipzig, where he is more likely to be given first-team minutes than at Stamford Bridge.
Though MD do believe that Barca are more likely to negotiate with Chelsea than Leipzig due to their financial capabilities, essentially they are more likely to match their £20million asking price.
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Moriba’s relationship with Barca has well and truly gone stale and he is looking forward to leaving the club, may that be this season or when his contract expires next year.
The young midfielder has previously not been successful in negotiating a new contract with his current employers, who have since retaliated and made Moriba train with the under-23s and other youth squads.
His team also feel ‘disrespected’ by Barca after accusations that they have been negotiating behind their back and encouraging Moriba to push for more money in contract extensions, which then profusely deny and claim that if money was the incentive then they would have left in 2019 before he took a pay cut.
If Chelsea do manage to meet Barca’s demands and sign Moriba then they may be forced to send the midfielder out on loan to one of their ‘feeder clubs’, such as Vitesse, to earn enough points to get his Visa.
Tuchel hasn’t been overly busy in the transfer window so far, with Romelu Lukaku being the only notable signing. He signed earlier this month for £97.5m from Inter Milan and scored against Arsenal on his debut last weekend.
The Blues have sold Tammy Abraham, Fiyako Tomori, Davide Zappacosta, Ike Ugbo, Valentino Livramento this transfer window, and are set to sell Kurt Zouma to West Ham too, so they won’t struggle to find funds if they do want to bring in an exciting young prospect like Moriba.
