Barcelona are ready to announce their first signing of the 2018 summer window as they agree on terms with Sevilla to pay Clement Lenglet’s €35m release clause before 1st July. The player is set to sign a 5-year contract with the La Liga champions and has already told his loved ones of his future.
This is a massive boost for the Barcelona faithful who were left disappointed after Antoine Griezmann turned down an offer from the club in dramatic fashion. The Blaugrana are looking to make improvements to their current squad after losing Neymar last summer and Javier Mascherano in January.
The defence could use a helping hand with Yerry Mina struggling to meet the required standards and Thomas Vermaelen glued to the sidelines with recurring injuries. Gerard Pique and Samuel Umtiti might be an uncontested starter at the moment but Ernesto Valverde plans on reigniting some competitive spirit into the centre-back positions.
Both the defenders were on display during the UEFA Champions League quarter-final second loss to AS Roma which eventually led to the side getting knocked out of the competition. Barcelona has no further plans of spending another season in the shadows of bitter rivals, Real Madrid in the European stage.
Bringing in Lenglet is a solid move to bolster the club ranks. The 22-year-old has heaps of potential under his boots which he managed to show with Sevilla the last term. He featured in 54 games last season after only signing with them last summer on a 4-year contract. He switched for a bargain price of €5m from Ligue 1 outfit, Nancy.
Lenglet’s arrival solidified the backline under Pablo Machin as the Frenchman helped the side to the finals of the Copa Del Rey and to the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
We got to witness Lenglet in full force against Manchester United in the round of 16 of the continental cup. Sevilla ended up winning the tie on a 2-1 aggregate scoreline as the centre-back put in a man of the Match-worthy performance.
He was outstanding across both the legs and completely neutralized Romelu Lukaku’s threat. The big Belgian was kept quiet for almost the entire two fixtures and even beaten in aerial and physical tussles.
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The Beauvais-born defender has been capped 41 times for the France youth teams, 10 of them for the U21 squad. He can make a real case for the senior side if he can beat out Umtiti in his own club ranks.
