In an interview with Dutch TV channel NOS, Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman has confirmed that he wanted to sign Georginio Wijnaldum from Liverpool during the recent international transfer window.
The Blaugrana replaced Quique Setien with Koeman as the head coach in August shortly their embarrassing 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the 2019/2020 Champions League quarter-final.
The Catalan giants were thereafter linked with a number of Dutch players and Wijnaldum and Lyon’s Memphis Depay were among the top targets for Koeman to reinforce the squad.
Unfortunately, no deal materialised for either player. The Blaugrana did not make a serious attempt to sign Wijnaldum while a deal for Depay fell through on deadline day due to budget constraints.
Speaking recently to NOS, Koeman acknowledged that Wijnaldum was one of the players on his radar, he told (as translated by Marca): “He [Wijnaldum] was on my list”.
The Blaugrana currently have just one Dutch player in Frenkie de Jong and Koeman said that he is hopeful of signing one of the midfielder’s compatriots in the near future.
“Let’s hope we have a second Dutchman on the squad,” He added.
Both Depay and Wijnaldum have their contracts expiring at the end of June next year and neither have shown the interest to put pen-to-paper on an extension.
The duo will be free to sign pre-contracts at the turn of the year, suppose they continue to remain reluctant to extend their deals with their respective sides.
Les Gones president Jean-Michel Aulas recently said that Depay may push for a move to the Camp Nou in January and the club may sanction his sale instead of losing him for free.
It will be interesting to see how Jurgen Klopp’s side deal with the situation of Wijnaldum. The 29-year-old recently hinted that he could be open to signing a new deal with the club.
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