Barcelona presidential candidates fail to agree on deal for Man City's Eric Garcia
By Tom Gott
Barcelona will not move for Manchester City centre-back Eric Garcia in January after the club's three presidential candidates failed to agree on pursuing the deal.
Garcia is one of Barça's top targets and the club are prepared to wait until the summer to sign him on a free transfer once his contract expires, but club officials would like to bring him in a little sooner to help out immediately.
The problem for Barcelona is that all transfer business will be left to the new president, who was initially expected to be decided in elections on January 24. These elections have now been delayed, meaning there will be no permanent president before the closure of the winter transfer window.
According to Marca, acting chief Carles Tusquets met with the three candidates, Victor Font, Joan Laporta and Toni Freixa, to see whether all three would be happy for him to pull the trigger on Garcia now, but the responses did not match up.
Only Font was supportive of Tusquets' proposal to sign Garcia for a total of £7m, with both Laporta and Freixa turning their noses up at the idea. It's not clear whether they would prefer to wait and sign him for free or whether they are simply against the idea of landing Garcia altogether.
Because the trio could not agree, Tusquets will not be pursuing the defender, and Barcelona are now not expected to make any signings before the delayed elections can be held on March 7.
Manager Ronald Koeman has previously confessed his desire to see the club sign a new striker this month, but said on Saturday: "If it's not possible to sign players, it's not possible. We'll carry on with what we have."
It's thought that Barcelona don't have enough money in the bank to make any real splashes this month, so club officials will instead wait until the summer to pursue their primary targets.
Alongside Garcia, decisions will have to be made about Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum and Lyon forward Memphis Depay, both of whom will also be available on free transfers unless they can agree new deals at their current clubs.
Koeman is keen to bring in all three players and would ideally like them as soon as possible, but he's going to have to stay patient.