Barcelona Transfer News: Latest Rumours on Neymar and Aleix Vidal

Manchester United, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City reportedly all tried to sign Barcelona star Neymar in the summer before he signed a contract renewal with the Catalan giants.

The extraordinary offers were reported by Mundo Deportivo (h/t Santi Gimenez of AS) and relayed by sports journalist Jonas Giaever on Twitter:

Los Blancos offered a staggering €40 million (£36 million) signing-on fee plus €32 million (£28.9 million) per year in salary, for five years with the option of a sixth, while PSG offered the same signing-on fee but a further €8 million (£7.2 million) per year in wages.

Giaever explained the English clubs' reported attempts to lure the Brazilian to the Premier League:

Neymar missed the start of the season due to his involvement with Brazil at the 2016 Rio Olympics, but he has hit the ground running since his return with five goals and seven assists in seven games.

Football journalist Rafael Hernandez believes the Barca star has struggled with consistency at times this year but is gathering momentum once more:

It's unsurprising there's no shortage of suitors for the forward, who is among the prime candidates to take up the mantle as the best in the world from Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo one day.

The 24-year-old showed his commitment to remaining at the Camp Nou by putting pen to paper on a new deal, despite it being much less lucrative than the others on the table at €15 million (£13.5 million) per year.

While he'd likely continue to excel and win silverware at any of the clubs that tried to sign him, his chemistry with Messi and Luis Suarez is unrivalled and brings the best out of all three players—he was wise to stay.

The world's other elite clubs are unlikely to give up on trying to sign him, but there may well be many more years of Neymar in a Barcelona shirt before he moves on.

David Ramos/Getty Images

Meanwhile, Barca have reportedly drawn up a five-man shortlist of players who could replace Aleix Vidal if he leaves in January.

According to Marca's Ramiro Aldunate (adapted by Euan McTear), they are "Valencia's Joao Cancelo, Bayern Munich's Joshua Kimmich, Shakhtar Donetsk's Darijo Srna, Arsenal's Hector Bellerin and Juventus' Stephan Lichtsteiner."

Per Mundo Deportivo (h/t AS), Vidal told his team-mates: "It’s clear to me. I want to leave." As revealed by football writers Sam Marsden and Simon Harrison, the former Sevilla man has played little for Barca and not performed well when given the opportunity:

The 27-year-old should be at or approaching his peak but is clearly struggling at Barca, and it seems highly likely he'll leave at this stage.

Sergi Roberto has been excellent in replacing Dani Alves thus far, so a new starting right-back isn't necessarily needed, but at the very least they'll need cover—it's wise for them to plan for his exit.