Barcelona Transfer News: Santos Make Gabriel Barbosa Claim, Latest Rumours

Brazilian club Santos reportedly contacted Barcelona over the transfer of Gabriel Barbosa before it was confirmed that the forward would move to Inter Milan rather than the Camp Nou.

Barca recently announced their plans to enter legal proceedings after accusing Santos of not respecting the fact that they had a first option on the 20-year-old, with claims suggesting the La Liga giants were "not given enough time to make a decision on whether they wanted him," per Sport.

However, according to Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo (via the Sun's Andrew Richardson), Santos sent Barcelona an email on the matter on August 25 but never received a reply.

Not until August 30 was it confirmed that Barbosa, nicknamed Gabigol, had joined Inter until 2021 for a fee of around €28 million (£23.8 million), per Goal.

The Blaugrana's director of professional sports, Albert Soler, confirmed last week that Barca are taking legal action over the issue, per Squawka:

It is quite clear the La Liga giants are aggrieved to have missed out on Gabigol, who won an Olympic gold medal last month at Rio 2016.

The youngster netted two goals in six matches at the Games and departed Santos having scored five from 11 appearances in the 2016 Brasileiro, per WhoScored.com. 

He is able to play as a central striker, a No. 10 or on either flank and could have been an ideal purchase for Barca in the summer as they looked to add greater depth to their front line.

Gabriel was named among numerous European forwards as one of Barca's key targets to provide cover for Luis Suarez, Neymar and Lionel Messi, and they reportedly offered £17 million for him, per Marca (via Richardson).

Eventually, Barca signed Paco Alcacer for €30 million (£25.5 million) from Valencia, but they are clearly unhappy about how they lost out on Gabigol.

It seems, though, that as far as Santos are concerned, they gave Barca plenty of time to make a decision on their young star before he moved to Inter.