Sports Burst - Barcelona's Forward Thinking
The Camp Nou casting call begins for new number nine at Barcelona after 'thousand passes, one goal' Granada stats
By Tim Stannard
Timo Werner tops list of Barcelona targets as club searches to fill Luis Suarez hole
1005 passes, 82% possession, but just the single goal to show for Sunday's match against Granada in Barcelona's 1-0 win and Quique Setien's managerial opener.
While there was plenty of chin-stroking, ooh's and aah's of approval and a little bit of drooling over what is being seen as the return of tiki-taka at the Camp Nou, there is still a fair amount of spookage over the impact of Luis Suarez being absent from Barca's front line, potentially until the rest of the season.
After all, although the coach on the bench was different, the outcome for Barcelona was the same. Lionel Messi saves the day.
This is why Tuesday's transfer gossip in Spain focuses on possible moves Barcelona could possibly make in the market with just 10 days to go. This casting call ranges from the truly impossible to the Kevin-Prince Boateng bargain bin.
Let's start with the pipe dreams.
Apparently, RB Leipzig might be willing to give up on the Bundesliga title by selling the 23-year-old forward, Timo Werner to Barcelona for just over 30 million dollars. Werner has currently racked up 20 league goals to see Leipzig at the top of the table.
Good luck with that one.
Another speculation is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang moving from Arsenal. While the Gabon striker would be delighted to be playing his last match for the downspiraling Gunners on Tuesday in a Premier League clash against Chelsea, it's unlikely Arsenal will make a bad season even worse by selling a forward who has 14 league goals.
This leaves the bargain bin battlers.
Hello Olivier Giroud, who has been a fixture of the winter transfer window being bounced from West Ham to Inter Milan to Aston Villa.
Finally, hello as well to Fernando Llorente, who is now a trivia question on where he plays these days. The answer is Napoli. Which can't be fun.
Plenty for Quique Setien and the Barcelona bosses to ponder as the team prepares for a fun-sounding Copa del Rey clash at Ibiza on Wednesday.
The Sports Burst live show will mull over all these possible deals. Just head to our beIN SPORTS USA Youtube channel or Facebook page at 12PM ET.
Offers arrive for King Cavani who wants PSG exit
One problem Barcelona may have in their striker search is that the LaLiga side is not the only club out there desperately looking for a forward. Manchester United are alongside Barca in a disorderly queue after losing Marcus Rashford for the next six weeks.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was talking on Tuesday to the media ahead of an EPL defeat to Burnley and said that the club was "always looking to improve the squad." So that's Olivier Giroud and Fernando Llorente then.
However, there is a knight in shining armor out there for one team - for the right prize - Edinson Cavani. The PSG forward has officially asked to leave the Ligue 1 side and an offer has even come in from a desperate Atletico Madrid. However, PSG Sporting Director Leonardo revealed that this was declined.
"I don't know how this is going to turn out," admitted the Brazilian on a player who is wanted by at least four big European beasts.
Speaking of PSG and Kylian Mbappe and co are in action on Wednesday in a Coupe de la Ligue semifinal encounter against Reims. The winner of that will play whoever comes out on top of Tuesday's other final-four clash which sees the phonetically pleasing Lyon taking on Lille.
That gets underway live, live, live on beIN SPORTS at 3PM ET.
Real Madrid sending Odriozola for Lederhosen fitting
Sports Burst is going all in with the transfer speculation today.
Real Madrid might be letting another fullback out on loan.
Joining Achraf Hakimi at Borussia Dortmund, Sergio Reguilon at Sevilla, step forward Alvaro Odriozola. The floppy-haired fullback has not played in LaLiga since October 19th and looks likely to be heading to Bayern Munich, which is definitely landing on your feet.
Antonio Conte continues to plump for niche Premier League names in his pursuit of the Serie A title. Victor Moses - a former charge at Chelsea - is undergoing a medical with Inter, ahead of a possible move from Fenerbahce where he had been on loan. And injured a lot.
Christian Eriksen is expected to be moving by the end of the week with a bid now being discussed between Inter and Tottenham.