It has been a turbulent summer at FC Barcelona indeed. A period of severe transition seems imminent at this point, and it will be interesting to see if they survive that storm as still one of the best teams in the world.
The Catalans lost the La Liga title to fierce rivals Real Madrid, but the real trouble began after their humiliating Champions League exit in the quarterfinals at the hands of Bayern Munich. On top of AS Roma and Liverpool performing amazing comebacks to knock them out of the elite competitions in the previous two seasons, the Bavarians practically tore them apart this time with an 8-2 thumping.
Club legend and six-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi then declared he wanted to leave, and the fact that the club sacked Quique Setien and appointed Ronald Koeman in the place of head coach did nothing to appease him. Eventually, the Argentinian star decided to stay in order to avoid taking “the club he loves” to court.
Nonetheless, Koeman reportedly informed striker Luis Suarez that his services are no longer required, and told the club to sign Memphis Depay, with whom he worked previously at Netherlands, from Olympique Lyon. Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum has been mentioned in the same context too.
Speaking to Dutch channel NOS (via Marca), Depay confirmed he was aware of Barcelona’s interest, but he refused to say any more on the subject apart from the fact that he hadn’t yet spoken much to his representative about it. He is also yet to speak to Lyon.
