Spanish media reported this week that Roberto De Zerbi wanted to keep Ansu Fati on loan for another season at Brighton. New reports from Barcelona make it very unlikely the Italian will not get what he wants next season.
Diario SPORT reporter David Bernabeu Reverter claims that Barcelona have made a list of players the club want to sell this summer. Ansu Fati is one of the names on this list.
“They tell me that the sale [of Fati] has been decided,” Bernabeu Reverter revealed on Monday. Clément Lenglet, Eric García, Raphinha, and one, or both, of Andreas Christensen and Jules Koundé are the other players Bernabeu Reverter says Barcelona will sell this summer.
According to Bernabeu Reverter, “Barcelona want to raise €200 million in sales this summer.” Barcelona will use these funds to avoid violating La Liga FFP requirements and to sign players like Everton’s Amadou Onana and Bryan Zaragoza on loan from Bayern Munich.
Barcelona’s firesale doesn’t completely crush Brighton’s chances of keeping Fati at the club for another year. It does make it a whole lot more difficult though.
Fati is reportedly on £160k/week at Brighton, making him the club’s highest paid player by a wide margin. The 21-year-old would have to take a significant pay cut to stay in the Premier League with Brighton. His transfer fee could also pose an issue for the Seagulls.
No one has any idea how much Barcelona wants for Fati. Whatever the price, it’s probably more than he’s worth to Brighton right now. Fati has scored just four goals for Brighton this season. He’s also missed a significant amount of time with injuries.
Roberto De Zerbi may think “Fati is a sleeping giant,” just waiting to be woken up, but to many Brighton fans, he’s been a failure.
Convincing the club and the fans to bring Fati back on loan would have been difficult for De Zerbi. Convincing them to spend big on Fati in the transfer window will be impossible.
