Barcelona add two Premier League captains to ambitious six-man summer shopping list

Jason Soutar
Reported Barcelona targets Ilkay Gundogan and Ruben Neves

Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan and Wolves’ Ruben Neves are both on Barcelona manager Xavi’s summer shortlist, according to a report.

Barcelona are hoping to utilise the summer transfer market but will have to sell a few players in order to do so.

The Catalan club’s financial situation is very well known. They have mostly been limited to signing players out of contract, including Franck Kessie, Memphis Depay and Eric Garcia.

And Garcia’s former City teammate, Gundogan, is out of contract at the end of the season, so is naturally being linked with a move to the Nou Camp.

The German midfielder has been one of City’s most consistent performers over the years and is someone who Pep Guardiola values very highly.

Multiple reports say Barcelona are eager to sign Gundogan on a free and the player’s future remains up in the air despite his contract expiring next month.

The latest report to come out of Spain is from the newspaper Sport, with Barcelona’s six top summer targets plastered on their front page on Friday.

On Xavi’s transfer wishlist are Gundogan and Wolves midfielder Ruben Neves.

Neves is certainly less realistic than the German, but could be available for a decent price considering he is out of contract in 2024.

A report on Thursday claimed that Barcelona were hoping to strike a deal with Wolves that would see them receive Neves and some cash in exchange for Ansu Fati.

This seems as unrealistic as Barcelona forking out around £50million to sign the Portuguese international. Either way, it is hard to see either coming to fruition.

Also on the six-man list are Athletic Bilbao’s Inigo Martinez, Atletico Madrid’s Yannick Carrasco, Athletico Paranaense youngster Vitor Roque, and club legend Lionel Messi.

Some reports have suggested that Martinez has already agreed to join the Blaugrana.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that Barcelona can sign Carrasco this summer after including a buy option for the Belgian in the deal to offload Memphis Depay to Atletico in January.

Some outlets have claimed the fee to sign Carrasco is as low as €9m, while others have said it is between €15-20m.

Even though this is a low amount of money to pay for a player of Carrasco’s quality, Barcelona will still need to sell before they can buy.

And Sport have said they must make at least one ‘important sale’ before June 30 if they want to complete any signings this summer.

The aforementioned Fati is one of the players Barca could look to sell, while Ferran Torres and Raphinha are both being linked with a return to the Premier League.

Arsenal tried to sign Raphinha last summer before he moved to the Nou Camp and are believed to still be keen ahead of the summer window.

The Gunners are quite relevant in this article as they have been linked with nearly all of the players mentioned.

They are believed to be interested in Roque – who reportedly wants to join Barca – and Torres.

READ MORE: How Premier League clubs qualify for Champions League and Europa competitions

Manchester City Ilkay Gundogan