Barcelona have ruled out an exit for 23-year-old defender Gerard Martín in this transfer window despite strong interest shown in the player recently.
According a report by Diario SPORT, Martín’s agent received “two new offers” in the last few hours, but both the player and the club have ruled out an exit for Gerard given his desire to stay and Barça’s current situation.
The Catalans were willing to sell Martín earlier in the window when Wolverhampton were reportedly ready to pay up to €15 million to secure
his services, but the recent exit of Iñigo Martínez was a blow to Barça’s defensive depth and the Blaugrana cannot afford to lose another defender.
Barça don’t have the ability to sign another high level center-back given their ongoing Financial Fair Play struggles, which even affect Martín as he is still waiting to be registered to make his season debut. Hansi Flick tried Martín at center-back in preseason and liked what he saw, and the rapid rise of Jofre Torrents means Barça will probably be well covered at left-back and Martín will be seen as more of a central option.
SPORT’s report says the situation could possibly be revisited in January if Martín struggles for minutes and decides to move to another club to get regular playing time, but as of now there is zero desire from the player’s side to leave and Barça simply cannot allow him to go.
