Bernardo Silva was willing to leave Manchester City this summer amid interest from Barcelona, but a deal never materialised as his asking price wasn’t met. His father recently spoke about the failed move, revealing Barca never lodged an official bid.
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He told Stats Perform (h/t Football Espana): “There were a lot of talks, but no concrete offer was made at a time we thought was right.” Pep Guardiola said the same thing, that Barca didn’t put forward an acceptable proposal, so Silva didn’t get his dream move to the Camp Nou.
The 28-year-old was keen to join the Catalan giants in 2021 and reportedly took extreme steps to force a move, but he ended up staying at the Etihad Stadium and had one of his best seasons. Guardiola said he wouldn’t force the midfielder to stay but didn’t have a dilemma as no bid came through.
Barca are in a lot of debt after years of overspending in the transfer market coupled with the global pandemic cutting revenue for a period, so they didn’t appear to have the resources to pay £84m for Silva. The Catalans tried to sell Frenkie De Jong to generate funds, but he ended up staying so their pursuit of Silva was dead in the water.
In other news, Man City linked with ambitious move for Real Madrid midfielder
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