Nerves in Barcelona about Raphinha’s Leeds United future appear to have forced direct involvement from the Spanish club’s president. The Brazil international is expected to move on from Elland Road this summer with the Nou Camp giants linked with the winger for months.
A combination of United’s stalled top-flight progress last term, the two years remaining on Raphinha’s deal, his own extraordinary development with Brazil and an agent already working for Barcelona have paved the way for this speculation. It may be a transfer which makes a lot of sense on paper, but the notorious financial issues dogging the La Liga side have not disappeared overnight.
In broad terms, the expiry of Ousmane Dembele’s contract on June 30 will go a long way to freeing up funds for Raphinha, but it is inevitably more complex than that. More progress with the transfer, it seems, may have been expected by Barcelona’s fans and perhaps Raphinha himself based on Saturday’s reports.
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Sport, a daily sports newspaper based in Barcelona, and well placed within the Nou Camp, reports Joan Laporta has personally reassured the winger about the future of this proposed deal. If Laporta has had to personally encourage Raphinha, it underlines the doubts which may have crept into the player's mind about this move happening amid the financial turmoil being reported.
If Laporta had confidence in Raphinha's state of mind about the transfer he would not feel the need to extend that call of reassurance. For that reassurance to then be fed to the club’s newspaper underlines the doubts perhaps emerging in the fanbase about a key target being acquired.
There is still plenty of time for the transfer to get done, but amid the growing noise about Premier League interest, there has clearly been increasing anxiety in Spain that Raphinha may escape them.
