In a poll conducted by the Daily Mail, it has emerged that the majority of Barcelona fans wish for their club to sell Neymar this summer. The Brazilian reportedly has a £150 million release clause on his contract and a total of 61% of participants voted yes to getting rid of the striker at the end of the season.
The survey coincides with arguably the darkest period the club has endured since manager Luis Enrique took over. After failing to defend their Champions League trophy with a quarter final defeat to Atletico Madrid last week, Barca’s La Liga match-up with Deportivo La Coruna last night all of a sudden become a must-win affair after three successive defeats in the Primera Division has allowed their title chasing rivals Real Madrid and Atletico to close the gap.
Up until Barca’s 8-0 win over Depor which went some way towards vindicating their recent slump, Neymar himself had failed to find the net in his last five appearances for Barca and he along with team mate Lionel Messi have come under heavy scrutiny recently from fans.
Whilst 61% is far from unanimous and the survey itself likely targets a demographic that wouldn’t frequent Barca games too often, it’s still clear there are some schools of thought that believe selling the Brazilian for £150 million would be a good piece of business.
Where next for Neymar?
Of course the extortionate price tag itself rules out 99.99% of clubs (that includes you Tranmere Rovers) with Manchester City, Paris Saint Germain and Real Madrid emerging as front runners should Neymar’s club wish to tout him.
He’d certainly get plenty of fantasy football premier league points should he up sticks to money-bags City.
With ex-Barca boss Pep Guardiola also set to take over the club next season, the arrival of a world class player and a world class manager could kick-start a period of Premier League dominance for the Manchester side.
The same goes for French outfit PSG. After yet another disappointing quarter final exit in the Champions League, the Parisian side may yet again call upon their owners’ never-ending bank account and fork out the money to replace a reportedly on-the-move Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
With fierce rivals Real Madrid also possessing the financial clout to bring the 24-year-old to the Spanish capital, Los Galacitcos could also make a swoop for him in the summer.
Comments
andym
Founder and chief editor of La Liga Blog, Andy fell in love with Spanish football after a university placement year in the Costa Del Sol. His favourite Tapas is Albondigas and on Saturday afternoons, Andy can regularly be found trying to emulate his hero Carles Puyol for his amateur football team.