Barcelona Transfer News: Alen Halilovic Sale Considered, Mauricio Lemos Rumours

Barcelona are reportedly "open to negotiating with Valencia" over Croatian midfielder Alen Halilovic, who spent the 2015-16 season on loan at Sporting Gijon.

According to Cadena SER (via Sport), though, Barca will want to insert a buy-back clause should they sell the 19-year-old to Los Che for €5 million (£3.9 million), likely to be worth around €12 million (£9.4 million).

Sport explained Barca's current situation as regards Halilovic: "Barca are happy to advance their talks with Los Che, although they have no rush to close the operation because they know a good European Championships with Croatia could change everything."

The report also added that, though the Camp Nou giants are happy to negotiate with Valencia, they could also send him back on loan to Gijon, as Sporting coach Abelardo "is convinced in his ability" and wants him to stay on.

Playing both through the middle and on the right flank, Halilovic netted three goals and provided five assists as Sporting narrowly escaped relegation from La Liga in 2015-16, per WhoScored.com.

He appeared in 36 of their 38 La Liga matches, and some of his season highlights can be seen below:

An exciting attacking prospect, Halilovic can be devastating when running at defenders, and he has the pace and link-up abilities to potentially be one of Barcelona's stars of the future.

Clearly the Catalan club respect his ability, as they are not prepared to let him go without a buy-back clause, and he may be more likely to improve playing at high-profile club like Valencia than with struggling Sporting.

However, it seems Barca are not prepared to make a decision on his future until after the summer's Euro 2016 tournament in France.

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In the meantime, they have reportedly made an early move to sign Las Palmas centre-back Mauricio Lemos, who recently confirmed a permanent £1.6 million move to the Canary Islanders having previously been on loan at the club from Rubin Kazan.

According to Ed Malyon of the Mirror, Las Palmas rejected a £3 million offer—which could have eventually risen to £9 million—from Barca for the 20-year-old.

Malyon added that the Spanish champions will spend "the majority of the summer’s transfer budget on a big-money central defender," but Lemos is seen as a replacement for Marc Bartra, rather than an alternative target to Paris Saint-Germain's Marquinhos.