Lautaro Martinez to Barcelona: Head coach Quique Setien lifts lid on chances of signing the Inter Milan star

Wanted: Inter Milan forward Lautaro Martinez
AFP via Getty Images
Richard Parry20 April 2020

Barcelona head coach Quique Setien has lifted the lid on his side’s pursuit of Inter Milan star Lautaro Martinez.

Standard Sport understands that the 22-year-old Argentine is Barcelona’s No1 target as they look to bolster their frontline by finally securing a long-term successor to Luis Suarez.

With Ousmane Dembele, Antoine Griezmann and Malcolm having failed to usurp the veteran Uruguayan in attack, Barca still rely heavily on the 33-year-old Suarez – particularly whenever Lionel Messi is sidelined.

But the question mark over a move to Camp Nou for Lautaro is whether it will be this summer or next, and Setien admits that while the Argentine is a ‘great footballer’, the uncertainty around the financial fallout of the coronavirus pandemic makes transfer business hard to predict.

"We talk about transfers, but this pandemic is going to condition many things. The situation of the clubs will be economically complicated," the Barcelona head coach told Spanish radio station Onda Cero.

"I am not pessimistic or optimistic with Lautaro. I like how I like great footballers, but I have no illusions with any."

2020’s vision! 20 footballers primed to be the stars of the decade

1/20

In theory, Barcelona’s finances should be relatively stable despite the Covid-19 crisis. They were named the richest club in the world in this year’s Deloitte Football Money League, becoming the first club to surpass €800million barrier with revenue of €840.8m (£726m).

But last month the club announced that it would be cutting player and staff wages during the pandemic, with Barca citing the need to "minimise the economic impact" caused by the Covid-19 outbreak.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in