Barcelona Hope to Use Samuel Umtiti in Move for Lyon's Memphis Depay
By Tom Gott
Barcelona are pushing ahead with plans to sign Lyon forward Memphis Depay and hope to use centre-back Samuel Umtiti to help finance the transfer.
The Spanish side are on the lookout for a new forward after agreeing to wave goodbye to Luis Suárez, with Inter's Lautaro Martínez sitting at the top of Barcelona's wish list for what feels like an eternity.
Barça have reached out to Inter with that has been described as a 'final offer', but according to Gianluca Di Marzio, Antonio Conte is not willing to reopen negotiations over the Argentine and has now decided that he is not for sale.
That has forced Barcelona to turn their focus to Depay, who has stalled on signing a new contract at the Groupama Stadium, with manager Ronald Koeman keen to reunite with his fellow Dutchman this season.
In an attempt to save money, Barcelona are hoping to include centre-back Samuel Umtiti in the deal, which could end up costing Barça around £18m on top of the Frenchman.
Umtiti, who has battled injuries over the last few seasons and has plunged down the pecking order at Camp Nou, has long insisted that he does not intend to leave, although the chance to return to Lyon may be too intriguing to turn down.
Lyon boss Rudi Garcia recently spoke of his desire to re-sign Umtiti, telling OLTV (via RMC Sport): "Of course, we talked about [bringing Umtiti back], we know he's a very good defender. But I don't know if economically, it's possible."
He later told Téléfoot that he did not believe bringing Umtiti back was 'feasible', but that scepticism may well have disappeared with news that Barcelona want to send Umtiti back to Lyon.
Lyon are ready to meet with Barcelona to discuss this deal, having seen Depay enter the final year of his contract and refuse to ink fresh terms, so it could all come down to whether the two sides can agree on the respective values of Depay and Umtiti.