Barcelona: Why Christian Tello Will Be a Target for Major Clubs This Summer

Rarely is there any shortage of transfer interest in available Barcelona players, and this summer is set to be no exception. One of the most in-demand players is wide forward Cristian Tello, who has attracted plenty of headlines in the rumour columns regarding his club future.

Tello is a 21-year old attacker who has managed to establish himself as part of Barcelona's first-team squad, if not actually part of the starting XI as yet, and has thus far featured in 35 La Liga matches for Barça, scoring 10 times.

Add further strikes in the Copa del Rey and the Champions League over the past two years, and it is clear to see that he has some amount of instinct and ability in the final third—but what is it that makes him a target of so many major clubs this summer?

The likes of Arsenal and Liverpool from the Premier League in England are credited with an interest (via Yahoo!), while there has long been a rumour of a move to Atletico Madrid in Spain too (via Goal.com). Further afield, there are more teams in Holland and Germany who would likely take Tello if the opportunity arose. 

Tello This Season

Having featured in 15 La Liga matches and three Champions League games last season, Tello would have been hoping to push on significantly this term and establish himself as an important member of the side.

Although he has played in more matches in both competitions (20 league, four UCL), he has only managed to complete the full 90 minutes in La Liga on seven occasions this term. Those games have yielded seven league goals; not the biggest haul ever, but considering his number of minutes played, it is a more than satisfactory strike rate—Tello averages a goal every 166 minutes in La Liga.

Compared to David Villa (130 mins), Pedro (373 mins) and Alexis Sanchez (230 mins), it is easy to see why Tello has become a player who his team increasingly believe in, and also why other teams might cast admiring glances his way.

His shot conversion rate is similarly impressive; those seven goals come from just 33 shots, equal to a 21 percent conversion rate for Tello this season.

Position and Role

As a forward in the Barcelona team, Tello will naturally come under the spotlight. They win most matches they play domestically, they are widely accepted as one of the best footballing teams in the world and he is an exciting young talent.

That last factor is seemingly worth an extra few million on the price tag these days; considering the graduates from La Masia over the past decade, anybody who makes it through the ranks to play for Barcelona's first team is given an extra high status and relevance amongst fans and pundits.

Tello mainly operates from the left of the front three.

As a right-footed attacker, his natural strengths are to run with the ball at his feet infield, toward goal, drawing defenders toward him to create space for others. Tello has pace and good movement, though his decision-making can, of course, still be improved significantly. That will come with more games—and that could be a reason why Tello himself feels it could be time to move on.

In the current first team, Villa has been the main senior player to try and displace, but even he is far from a guaranteed starter and Andres Iniesta or one of Pedro and Alexis have also regularly played from the left side of attack.

Price and Competition

None of Villa, Alexis or Pedro have made it to 10 league goals this season, with only Cesc Fabregas contributing double figures to Leo Messi's 46-goal haul.

Tello may feel he should have been handed additional opportunities to shine this season, and with rumours persisting of Barcelona signing Neymar this coming summer (via Mirror Football) and the Brazilian usually operating from a similar left-sided attacking role, it may be that the Spanish under-21 forward thinks he needs to move on to progress further.

There is also the matter of the prodigious Gerard Deulofeu to consider, who plays across the front line as well and is waiting in the wings for his chance to progress to the first team.

In terms of his fee, Tello has an estimated market value of around £9 million, while media sources have claimed a release fee of around £8.5 million is in his contract.

Cristian Tello is far from the finished product, and even someone playing in the Barcelona team can fail to live up to expectations elsewhere, but it is easy to see why with his pedigree, his start at the professional level and his relatively low transfer fee, he will be on the radar of plenty of big clubs this summer.

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