For Barcelona, Adrien Rabiot is not worth the trouble

Adrien Rabiot will be available on a free transfer at the end of the season. But the drama surrounding any potential move is not worth the effort.

PSG’s Adrien Rabiot has long been linked with a move to Barcelona. With his contract with PSG up at the end of the season, Barcelona seemed primed to go after the midfielder. By all accounts, that is what happened with the player not coming to terms with a new contract at the Parisian club and his mother, also his agent, declaring that they would be looking for other opportunities elsewhere come the end of the season. Unsurprisingly, this has upset PSG and they are placing some of the blame on Barcelona for failing to follow the rules.

Antonio Henrique, PSG’s sporting director said, “It always surprises us that clubs don’t follow the rules.”

This was in reference to the timing of Barcelona’s offer where PSG feel that the club negotiated with Rabiot prior to the six-month window of his contract expiring.

The relationship between these two clubs is already frosty at best considering the Neymar transfer and Barcelona’s insistence on signing Marco Verratti. In an attempt to cool things down, Barcelona released a statement denying that no agreement had been reached with Rabiot.

Barcelona did concede that they were interested in the player and that they did have talks in August and a few weeks ago but denied an agreement or any sort of rule-breaking. Though it is a bit rich hearing PSG of all teams complain and accuse another team of not following the rules.

With all that being said, the back-and-forth among the teams and the demands made by Rabiot’s agent, is the player worth all this? Arguably, he is not.

At 23 years old, he’s still young but has yet to establish himself in PSG’s starting line-up, even prior to him being relegated to the bench for not agreeing to a new contract. He’s not without baggage. That he is reportedly demanding a salary of €10 million in and of itself it not bad but he has not done much to deserve it. Also the fact that he considers a move to Tottenham “beneath him” is a sign that he has a high opinion of himself which, again, is not a bad thing but not exactly warranted.

Rabiot also seems like a player that will make a huge fuss over not being a starter. Cracking into the starting side at Barcelona, especially at midfield, is not easy. We saw how Arturo Vidal dealt with it and it could be worse with Rabiot. He was not satisfied with being on call with France prior to the 2018 World Cup and went as far as retiring from the national team without actually retiring.

Barcelona are going through a lot of trouble for a player that would not be a starter assuming that they do not sell Rakitic. Arturo Vidal, Arthur, and Carles Aleña would also be ahead of him in the depth chart. Don’t forget about their chase for Ajax’s Frenkie de Jong and if he is signed, it’s another player who would likely be in front of Rabiot.

It’s hard to pass up acquiring a player on a free transfer and while that is the case with regards to Rabiot, the drama with PSG and the player are not worth it. Barcelona know all too well what happens when trying to sign a PSG player. With the release clause in Spain there’s little stopping PSG from triggering the clause for one of Barcelona’s player.

They are better off focusing on De Jong and a signing center-back. They have a number of good players in midfield and it’s way past time they gave Aleña a chance.