Barcelona, PSG are the (im)perfect partners in a Neymar deal

PSG and Barcelona reportedly continue to engage in talks for Neymar, and it looks like the Ligue 1 champions are playing hardball in negotiations regarding a player who seems to have no interest in staying in Paris.

Although Barcelona signed Antoine Griezmann for 120 million euros from Atletico Madrid, with the fee itself being disputed by Atleti, they still appear to be interested in a reunion with Neymar. Barcelona would be better of focusing on young stars Ousmane Dembele and Malcom as attacking options, but the lure of signing one of the top three players in the world is understandably strong.

According to a report from Santi Gimenez of AS, the La Liga champions have offered a king’s ransom to PSG for Neymar. This reported deal would send 40 million euros, Philippe Coutinho, and Dembele to PSG for the Brazilian superstar. On the surface, this looks like a fair deal, as Dembele is one of the most talented rising stars in the world, Coutinho is a world-class attacking midfielder, and 40 million euros is more than the fee PSG paid for starting-caliber Borussia Dortmund defender Abdou Diallo this summer.

However, AS also reports that PSG are uninterested in Barcelona’s attempted player swap deals. PSG know that Neymar doesn’t intend on playing for the team and is doing his best to push his way out, but they want to get as much as possible for one of the most talented players of this generation. Considering they paid 222 million euros for him in 2017, it’s hard to fault them for having this policy.

But Neymar wants to go to Barcelona. He doesn’t want to play for PSG. That much is clear. Furthermore, Barca still want to sign him, as unwise as that seems now that they’ve brought in Griezmann from La Liga’s second-place side.

Barcelona represent PSG’s best chance at offloading Neymar for something of significance in return, and a package of Dembele and Coutinho is nothing to sneeze at.

The problem is the money. Barcelona would be forced to pay Neymar 36 million euros per season, which is a number that probably can’t be reduced significantly. They also can’t afford to spend cash on a transfer after purchasing Griezmann for 120 million euros, so they have to send a package swap and offload talented attackers like Dembele and Coutinho to accommodate Neymar and Griezmann.

However, PSG can’t take on too much salary either. Perhaps they could coax Barcelona into adding a defender like Samuel Umtiti or Nelson Semedo into a package deal, but the salaries could add up to the point where PSG’s wage budget would be even higher with three or four superstar players replacing PSG.

There are so many logistics to work out, but it’s clear that Barcelona may be PSG’s only trade partners. A disgruntled Neymar on the roster in 2019 could undermine PSG, and it seems like playing for La Blaugrana again is the Brazilian’s lone interest. Coutinho and Dembele are fabulous players who, when combined, could even be upgrades over Neymar, given the make-up of the team’s starting 11.

As much as it seems like a deal has to get done between PSG and Barcelona, it also seems like there are just as many roadblocks standing in the way. And that makes this one of the most interesting and complicated transfer sagas in recent memory.