Barcelona could consider letting a defender leave in January after convincing Ronald Araujo to stay – Report | OneFootball

In the last few days, a key FC Barcelona defender, Ronald Araujo, was strongly linked with a move away from the Catalan club, as Juventus were trying to get him on a loan with a mandatory purchase option.

However, following a meeting between the defender and Deco, the Barcelona Sporting Director was able to convince the Uruguayan to stay at the Blaugrana club.

This latest development now changes things considerably at the Catalan club, as, once again, there is going to be a surplus of center-backs in Hansi Flick’s squad.

In such a context, SPORT reports that Barcelona will now study any proposals they receive for Eric Garcia and Andreas Christensen.

They will not force any of their players to depart, but if a sale of one of these players materializes in the coming days, the Blaugranes will use the salary space generated to get an attacking reinforcement.

There are only 15 days left in the winter transfer window, but movements in the Barcelona squad cannot be ruled out, even though the Catalans were clear that Juventus’ pursuit of Araujo is not going to end in anything fruitful.

This was mainly because they were aware of the financial limitations of the Italian side, and the loan offer they put in was not something that would have interested the Blaugranes.

The other two defenders whom Barcelona can sell also have quite a lot of demand in the market, even though Flick wants them to remain in his team.

Girona have once again been interested in Eric Garcia, while Christensen has a lot of demand in the Premier League. Recently, there have been some rumors of Manchester United making some contact with the defender but no formal offer has yet been made.

Furthermore, the Catalans can also allow one of their midfielders to leave, with De Jong being the most likely candidate for a sale from this area of the team.