Barcelona wanted Llorente

According to Sport, Barcelona were seriously interested in signing Fernando Llorente from Napoli in January – a move they kept quiet from the press.

The Catalan club had recently learnt that they would be without their number one striker Luis Suarez for a significant period of time and were keen on signing a replacement, but despite putting in reasonable effort, they failed to do so in January. After that, their problems increased severely when it was confirmed Ousmane Dembele would miss the rest of the season.

Unlike Martin Braithwaite, who arrived outside the transfer window after Barcelona activated his release clause under special rules, Llorente was not an option after January as he doesn’t play in Spain at the moment. But while the winter marker was open, the La Liga champions tried to convince him to get Napoli to rescind his contract and let him leave for free, so he could come to Camp Nou. However, Napoli had absolutely no intention of giving in to such requests.