Matteo Moretto Transfer Column: Manchester City moving for defender, Rodrigo de Paul and Barcelona pivot hunt | OneFootball

Matteo Moretto gives Football España exclusive information on the latest deals dominating the papers in Spain, as revealed in the Daily Briefing.

Rumours of Rodrigo de Paul exiting Atletico Madrid this summer are unfounded

I honestly don’t know who is saying these things, Rodrigo de Paul had an important offer in the summer to go to Saudi Arabia but chose, along with Diego Simeone and Lionel Scaloni, to remain in Europe to continue aspiring to win important trophies. He chose to stay at the highest level. To this day, I honestly don’t know of any rumours of de Paul leaving, who for what it is worth, is super focused on the present, and wants to do his best to help the team in La Liga and the Champions League.

Manchester City to compete for 22-year-old centre-back

Barcelona have a sell-on clause of 50% for Las Palmas centre-back Mika Marmol, who has a release clause of €10m. He is a player that many clubs are interested in, they have confirmed to me that the City Group is following him with interest: the idea is for City to buy him and leave him on loan at Girona for two years. Nice are also interested. Let’s see how the negotiations go.

Barcelona need major sales to compete with Arsenal and Manchester United for midfielder

Amadou Onana, from Everton, is the most liked player for the pivot position, but it will not be easy to reach an agreement with Everton, who are asking for very high amounts. Barca would need to sell big-time in order to consider a purchase of that size. Mason Greenwood is not an option.