Why Barcelona Must Keep Jordi Alba Amid Premier League Transfer Links
Barcelona full-back Jordi Alba is wanted badly by an English side. Which one it is depends on what newspaper you like to read.
The Daily Star's John Toner claims that the two Manchester clubs, City and United, are targeting the Spanish defender.
Meanwhile, Anthony Chapman at the Daily Express also throws Arsenal into the mix.
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It should be noted that the Express piece also states, "Wing-back Dani Alves is set to leave in January, with the more defensive-minded Douglas preferred at the back," so we'll leave you to make up your own mind about whether the author knows his subject matter.
Regardless of the specific club links, there has been a lot of noise about a possible move for Alba among the English press.
However, it's almost impossible to imagine Luis Enrique's side selling the defender for a huge variety of reasons.
There is one big obstacle, which means that it's unlikely Barcelona will be selling any players that they don't have replacements for.
That's the FIFA transfer ban which prevents them from buying any new players until January 2016.
If they sold Alba, then the only replacements they would have for him are Adriano and Alex Grimaldo from the B team.
Adriano is a solid performer and his versatility is appreciated at Camp Nou, being able to play on both the left and right sides of defence.
But nobody would ever imagine that he could take the reins from Alba and become first choice at Barcelona.
Grimaldo, on the other hand, has a lot of potential and could one day make it at the top level.
He is only 19 years of age, and it will be a while yet before he starts making regular appearances at the top level.
Furthermore, Barcelona daily newspaper Sport's sub-director Albert Masnou has said to me before that there are concerns over whether Grimaldo has the right attitude to make it at the club.
Masnou compared Grimaldo to the immensely talented, but occasionally work-shy Gerard Deulofeu, who is currently on loan at Sevilla.
Many people thought that Deulofeu could play a role with the first-team squad this season in Catalonia, but while Munir El Haddadi, Sandro and Rafinha all feature, the young forward is down in Andalusia.
The only other option is to use Jeremy Mathieu as a left-back, which was his original position before he was converted to the centre a couple of seasons ago.
He played well there for Barcelona against Rayo Vallecano, but Enrique was just exploring his options and giving Alba a rest.
Even if Barcelona had a feasible replacement for Alba and were allowed to buy players as usual, they would still try to keep the Spaniard.
His contract runs until 2017 and, per Sport, he has a €90 million release fee.
That means that Barcelona would feel comfortable demanding a huge fee were they to let the left-back go.
Manchester United showed this summer that they are not afraid to stump up huge sums for players, but having already signed Luke Shaw, it seems ludicrous that they would do the same again.
Alba has been an important piece of the jigsaw for Barcelona, getting forward and helping the attack and playing reasonably well at the back too.
The team have kept seven clean sheets in seven games in La Liga, and Alba has been a part of that defense more often than not.
It is unlikely that we will see Alba strutting his stuff for any other club side than Barcelona for years to come.
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