By Tim Stannard
Barca on brink of adding American fullback, Sergino Dest, to roster to seal rare positive period at the Camp Nou
Ronald Koeman couldn't quite put his finger on the sensation as the Dutchman woke up on Monday morning. Was it indigestion?
Nope. The feeling was something called 'happiness'.
It had been a while since Koeman had experienced that emotion since arriving at Barcelona - from having to tell seasoned players that there were no longer wanted, to the whole Messi business, from discovering that Quique Setien was technically still the Barcelona coach, to the campaign to vote out his boss, to Luis Suarez's rather public departure and Messi's maudlin response. It had not been a fun ride.
Indeed, matters might have gotten even worse on Sunday when Suarez racked in two goals and an assist in just twenty minutes in the Uruguayan's debut for Atletico Madrid, a team that has suddenly become a direct title rival.
But then something peculiar happened. Barcelona responded by playing well against Villarreal. Really well. Four-goals-in-a-half well. Two goals from the seventeen year old Ansu Fati and something approaching a smile reaching Messi's face.
"We're very happy," was the official confirmation from the club's Dutch boss.
Koeman might be even happier by the time Monday is over at the Camp Nou as a reinforcement could be coming in from Ajax. Sergino Dest, the 19-year-old right back is in the process of joining up at the Camp Nou and will be the first American to be a member of the Barcelona first team squad.
Hope Solo joins the Sports Burst live show to look back at quite the weekend in LaLiga. Head to our beIN SPORTS USA Facebook page and beIN XTRA channel at 12PM ET.
Eric Garcia moves step closer to Barca move
The transfer window butterfly effect might also see a center back joining up at the Camp Nou. Manchester City is on the brink of signing a new stopper in the form of Ruben Dias for $83 million with Nicolas Otamendi going in the opposite direction, to Benfica.
This news might be quite timely, considering City just shipped five goals at home to Leicester City on Sunday. However, this does mean that Pep Guardiola could be contemplating allowing Eric Garcia - who did not have a great day against Leicester, to be fair - to move to the Camp Nou with the former Barcelona youth player in the final year of his current contract at City.
A Barca might-have-been is also making the news on Monday with Arsenal striker, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang revealing that he had an offer to join Barcelona over the summer but chose to sign a new deal with the Gunners.
PSG has now been linked with a loan move for Chelsea midfielder, Jorginho, with the Italian facing a fair amount of competition in Frank Lampard's madcap side.
Monday Night Soccer will be pouring through PSG's latest win against Reims and all the other big games of the season at 9:30PM ET.
Heat wins to set up LeBron reunion
Bad news, good news for the Boston Celtics on Sunday night.
The New England squad is now allowed to leave the Orlando NBA bubble after months of seclusion and cavity-swabbing. But that's because it has been eliminated from the playoffs by the Miami Heat to set up the LeBron past and present final series against the LA Lakers, which gets underway on Wednesday.
"But you're going to get the same test over and over again until you pass it. That test is LeBron James," admitted Heat's Jimmy Butler on his team's Boss Level challenge.
While one Miami sports franchise was winning the other was having a Gonzalo Higuain moment. The Argentine was making his debut at the Philadelphia Union but ended up making headlines by skying a penalty and then getting into an angry shoving match with their rivals.
Inter Miami is currently second from bottom of the Supporters Shield standings with just three wins from 14.
A huge week on beIN SPORTS gets underway on Tuesday with a special midweek round of action in LaLiga, with Barcelona at Celta Vigo and Real Madrid taking on Real Valladolid. That is doubled with Match Day five of the Copa Libertadores.
