With the end of the European season upon us, the whispers surrounding possible transfers begins to heat up.
One of the teams looking to make improvements after a disappointing season is Barcelona. The Catalan side will finish well behind Real Madrid in LaLiga with the only question mark remaining as to whether they'll finish in second place or not.
Beyond that, however, manager Xavi Hernandez, alongside the Barcelona board, have already started planning for the summer and have identified potential targets. One of those is reportedly a former La Masia starlet.
Barcelona is rumored to be interested in Xavi Simons who is currently on loan at Bundesliga side RB Leipzig. The significant stumbling block in a potential deal is his parent club is PSG, which Barcelona don't exactly have the best relationship with.
Working in their favor is Simons apparently has a clause in his contract where he can choose where he goes should PSG decide to loan him.
🚨 Barcelona is keen on Xavi Simons, who has a clause allowing him to choose his loan destination if PSG loans him. The player and his agent are meeting with PSG, but Xavi is eager to play for Barcelona. For now, a loan is the only option for his return to Barça, as PSG demands… pic.twitter.com/UtuIqKWcXZ
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) May 8, 2024
The hard part will be convincing PSG to send him out on loan again. According to Mundo Deportivo, Simons is set to communicate to PSG his desire to go out on loan again with Barcelona being his preferred destination.
One has to imagine PSG would rather move him on a permanent deal rather than on loan to Barcelona.
Should the deal go through, it'll see the La Masia player return to his former club. It would also mean the interest in Manchester City's Bernardo Silva would all but disappear as Simons can play both in midfield and out on the left wing; areas in which Xavi is desperate to improve upon.
For Barcelona, getting Simons on loan would tick the aforementioned boxes. If all they have to take on is the player's wages, then even better given their financial situation. There's plenty of chatter and optimism that a deal will get done but the season isn't over yet and PSG aren't likely to make things easy.