Lionel Messi asks Barcelona to sign five players in 2019

Apart from the club president, board of directors and manager, Lionel Messi always has his say in the players which Barcelona sign.

Barcelona top La Liga Santander for the season with a slender lead at the summit, but the Catalans still have a lot of issues to address. Their indispositions seemed to have turned a corner with recent results, but the game against Real Betis before the international period did signal a lot of susceptibilities in the defensive and attacking departments.

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In spite of spending a great deal of money on making signings last summer, Josep Bartomeu is expected to dish out some more funds allocated to landing in more players. Apart from Ernesto Valverde, one man who has a big say in the transfer proceedings is club captain Lionel Messi.

The 31-year-old has always been consulted by the board when there have been plans of signing players. But this time, it has been Lionel Messi himself who has suggested to the Spanish giants to sign as many as five players in the January and summer transfer windows coming up in 2019, according to reports.

The first of those is Ajax Amsterdam’s defender Matthijs de Ligt. The 19-year-old is a centre back and that’s a position which Barcelona need to desperately fill in. Gerard Pique has been showing signs of old age whereas Thomas Vermaelen has failed to live up to expectations ever since his arrival in Catalonia.

That has left Barcelona with only two experienced central defenders for the future in Clement Lenglet and Samuel Umtiti. There is Chumi Brandariz from the academy as well, but he cannot be trusted enough to take over from Gerard Pique so soon. Hence, it comes as no surprise that de Ligt tops the list and Barcelona may act soon because there are several suitors for the 19 year old.

The next name on the list is that of AS Monaco’s right back Djibril Sidibe. The full back spot in any major club is extremely demanding but Sergi Roberto and Nelson Semedo have not matched suppositions on the right hand side since Dani Alves’ departure in Barcelona. A right back is needed for Barcelona, so Sidibe is a worthy candidate too.

The next two names are a bit of surprises and it will come as a huge shock if Barcelona manage to sign either of them- the two Premier League stars in Eden Hazard and Mohamed Salah. Ousmane Dembele has been linked with a move away from the Camp Nou and Liverpool are interested. The Frenchman has been insipid this season after a purple patch at the beginning, and it wouldn’t be surprising if Barcelona allow him to go. So Messi believes that Hazard and Salah could be good fits to fill the Frenchman’s boots.

While Eden Hazard will ditch Barcelona in all probability to fulfil his desire of playing for Real Madrid, it is difficult to think the Salah will move to Spain either since he’s enjoying life in Liverpool for the moment. The last and final name is of Genoa striker Krzysztof Piatek.

The Polish striker is enjoying a breakthrough campaign in the Serie A and leads the goal scoring business ahead of players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Gonzalo Higuain and Dries Mertens. Piatek has been the subject of interest from several European clubs and Messi believes that he could be the ideal successor to Luis Suarez.

To challenge for the UEFA Champions League which is of unmitigated preference to Barcelona, there is a general concurrence at the Camp Nou that things need to go uphill at the back and also at the front. While Barcelona need to reduce leakages in their defence, there needs to be a congruous goal scorer as well to assist Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.