With six months to go and some work to do in La Liga to get back into the title race, Barcelona have identified the final third as the area they would most like to strengthen. Manchester United's Marcus Rashford has become their main target, but as always with the Catalan giants, the numbers have to add up.
Catalan newspaper Sport say Barcelona are one of several clubs vying for Rashford's signature, including Borussia Dortmund, AC Milan and AS Monaco, but the England forward's priority is. The main obstacles are finances and timing for the Blaugrana. On Wednesday, Rashford's brother was due to hold a meeting with Manchester United to determine his future, and he had set today as the deadline for Barcelona to confirm if they could complete a deal.
Barcelona know that a deal for Rashford would require them to hire another player and save or earn €6.5 million to cover his wages for the next six months. He would be loaned out with a purchase option of €40 million, but would then have to reduce his annual net salary of €12 million if both parties wanted to strike a deal.
The main candidates to be sacrificed are Eric Garcia and Andreas Christensen after the turnaround of Ronald Araujo, or even Ansu Fati, who no longer seems to be in Hansi Flick's plans. The German coach is said to be the mainstay of bringing in Rashford, adding a forward line consisting of just Robert Lewandowsk, Pau Victor, Raphinha, Fati and Ferran Torres as natural options through the center and on the left.
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