Barcelona turned down the offer to sign veteran Spanish striker
By Kian Long
Barcelona were not going to settle for second best in January…
This January was about one thing and one thing only for Barcelona; strikers. Given the lengthy suspension of Luis Suarez, many were calling for the club to bring in a top-notch striker that could replace him and that was the intention. Barcelona were linked with the likes of Edinson Cavani and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang but in the end, no move came into fruition.
According to a report from AS, Barca were actually offered the chance to sign Fernando Llorente from Napoli. The 34-year-old has plenty of experience in Spain since this is where he grew up and spent most of his early years playing football.
In fact, a large majority of his time as a striker was spent with Athletic Bilbao before making the move to Juventus in 2013. Since then, he spent one season in Sevilla before taking on the Premier League.
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That said, a positive to signing Llorente would have been his immense experience, all across the globe. Playing in a number of different leagues, he has certainly honed his craft as a goal scorer so he could have easily filled the gap at Camp Nou.
However, Quique Setien and company felt he wasn’t right for the job so they held out for other candidates. This was probably down to his age and him not quite fitting the bill as he enters the final stages of his career. Either way, it was a chance which Barca may live to regret if they fail to come up with the goals for the remainder of this season.
Going forward, Antoine Griezmann or Lionel Messi could easily play in the role which Suarez occupies and it will involve them calling upon their usual squad rotation players in order to build a make-do frontline. In all honesty, though, this is probably a better option than bringing in Llorente.
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Do you think Barcelona should have signed Fernando Llorente in January?