Alejandro Balde is understood to have reached the point where he \u201cwants to leave\u201d Barcelona, with the summer transfer window nearing its end and his prospects at the club appearing increasingly limited.<\/p>\n
According to MARCA, the left back has concluded that he cannot continue at Bar\u00e7a because Jo\u00e3o Cancelo and Xavi Espart are both viewed as ahead of him in Flick\u2019s pecking order, which has reduced his playing time. The report also notes that neither player is a natural left back, a detail that underlines the situation around Balde\u2019s role.<\/p>\n
Last month, Flick was publicly asked about the defender\u2019s mindset and willingness to fight for his place. \u201cIt is a difficult decision, and Balde is a player with huge qualities, but what I said before is important: do you have the conviction to compete for your position?\u201d Flick told reporters in late August, prior to facing Elche.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see what players do here every day, how they behave and if they show what it takes to be at the top level. That\u2019s the most important thing. I need everyone to be 100% committed to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
After that match, when Balde was left out of the squad, Flick added: \u201cI felt something was wrong.\u201d He also suggested the player needed to \u201cclear his mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Balde has made 168 appearances for Barcelona since breaking into the team in the early weeks of 2021-22. Over four seasons up to this summer, the La Masia-trained defender had been first choice at left back, but he could now find himself as third choice this late in the window.<\/p>\n
MARCA says agent Jorge Mendes has spent a week looking for a new club without success, with \u201cno buyer has emerged.\u201d Manchester United, who could use a left back before England\u2019s deadline on Tuesday, had been linked, but the numbers do not point to a move. With Balde valued at $46.4 million (\u20ac40 million, \u00a334.3 million) and United reportedly favouring a loan, that route appears closed. Spain\u2019s deadline matches England\u2019s, while Italy and France close earlier and Germany\u2019s window has already shut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Balde is considering his Barcelona future, but Manchester United\u2019s reported interest does not look workable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18914,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1017,2028],"tags":[180],"class_list":["post-18915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-barcelona","category-manchester-united-transfer-news","tag-player-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}