Barca ‘plan’ could see Arsenal boss Arteta miss out on ‘dream’ signing in bizarre book-balancing ploy

Barcelona are hoping to include Arsenal and Man Utd target Ansu Fati in a deal to sign Wolves midfielder Ruben Neves, according to reports in Spain.

Fati was handed the No. 10 shirt at Barcelona following Lionel Messi’s departure in the summer of 2021.

It has not been easy for the Spanish forward since then due to his injury troubles.

After missing 47 games between November 2020 and September 2021, Fati has struggled with knee and hamstring problems.

While the young Spaniard is on and off the injury table, Barcelona have been making moves in the transfer window, signing plenty of competition up front.

This has resulted in a lack of consistent playing time for Fati, who has only played the full 90 minutes of two matches across all competitions this term.

Fati’s father recently slammed the club and manager Xavi for not playing the 20-year-old enough.

And the player’s difficult season has attracted the interest of several Premier League clubs.

Arsenal, Man Utd and Tottenham are all reportedly interested and there have been some rumours Fati will cost £90million should Barcelona look to sell this summer.

This is undoubtedly not worth it considering the youngster’s patchy form and lack of continuity at Barcelona.

Saying that, he is certainly a promising player who can become great at the right club and under the right manager.

Amidst all of the rumours linking Fati to Arsenal, a recent report from Spanish outlet Sport stated that Gunners boss Mikel Arteta sees the player as a ‘dream’ signing.

Arteta could be set to miss out on Fati with a report suggesting he could be off to Premier League rivals Wolves.

As everyone is already aware, Barcelona are a little bit skint and need to raise funds if they are to make any signings this summer.

Super agent Jorge Mendes has been busy in Catalonia trying to sort out the future of Ansu Fati, while also working out a deal for the Blaugrana to sign Wolves captain Neves.

The two potential transfers could correlate with Mendes keen to see Neves move to the Nou Camp.

According to Relevo, he has been ‘offering Neves to Barcelona for many months’ and the agent’s ‘plan’ is to exchange Fati with the Portuguese midfielder in a deal that would help the La Liga club balance the books.

There are a lot of numbers in this report. The moral of the story is: Wolves will pay cash (expected to be around £20million) and give Barcelona their captain in exchange for Fati.

It is stated, however, that this plan has ‘many pitfalls to overcome’.

A huge stumbling block is that Fati does not want to leave Barca – which is less than ideal for Arsenal, Man Utd and Spurs.

Neves has also failed to ‘convince’ the Catalan giants, but ‘everything is still open’, it is said.

Seriously, what a mind f**k. If a story could summarise the current state of Barca…