Barcelona will try to complete the signing of Eric Garcia before the transfer window shuts on Monday.
The Catalan club have worked hard to convince the Manchester City defender to return to the Nou Camp given his happiness under Pep Guardiola, with confidence at the Etihad that he would sign a new deal being drained away as last season came to an end before the 19-year-old informed the club he would not renew his deal.
City's stance since June has been that they will allow the player to leave rather than see out the final year of his contract but want a similar fee to what they paid for Ferran Torres from Valencia, another talented Spaniard who was in an identical position with his contract: an up-front fee of around £20m with a further £10m in additional and performance-related payments.
Barcelona, who blocked Lionel Messi's departure this summer as City waited to sign him, have so far refused to get anywhere close to the valuation for Garcia but a deal for the player - who was left out of the matchday squad at Burnley in midweek - could yet be done.
Guardiola suggested on Friday that the only thing missing was an agreement between the clubs, and his counterpart Ronald Koeman has suggested that Barcelona will aim to solve that.
"It's true we want Eric Garcia here. I've seen Pep's comments and that's how it is," he said. "I hope we get it done but we know the situation is tough financially. There's interest, but I don't know if we will get it over the line."
