Ruben Neves is emerging as Barcelona’s No. 1 midfield target for next summer
The Catalan giants are working on a replacement for Sergio Busquets, who will be out of contract in June. And after discussions between head coach Xavi and technical staff at the Nou Comp there is a consensus to push for the Wolves midfielder.
Neves will himself be out of contract in 2024 and he is yet to commit to Molineux beyond that. His representatives are aware of Barca’s interest and the club are expected to make their move after this campaign when, assuming no new deal has been struck, Wolves will have a decision to make about letting him run down his contract and losing him for nothing or cashing in while they can still command a fee.
Neves is valued at around £50million by Wolves — a fee which would be steep for Barcelona given their financial situation. But the Spanish giants will try to negotiate that price down as well as offering at least one but maybe even two of their younger players on loan or a permanent move as part of any deal.
Barcelona also believe there is interest in Neves from Arsenal but there is a feeling he could be lured to LaLiga after five years in the Premier League. Portugal international Neves joined Wolves from Porto and has become a huge favourite at the Black Country club.
Neves was in action for Wolves on Saturday as they slipped to a 2-0 defeat away to West Ham, and acknowledged what the players produced on the pitch was below the standard expected.
"We need to stop talking about performances. We always try to play our best to win but it is not enough. We need to make sure everyone goes on the same path," the Wolves skipper told Sky Sports. "It is time to look to ourselves. What we are doing in the Premier League is not enough. Having the ball is not enough.
"It is in our hands to work on it. We know our quality but in a league like this it is not enough. If you don’t train like you play you will not be able to win enough games at the weekend. The good thing is we still have time to change this.
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"I think everyone, including me can give a little bit more. We are not in good form so something needs to change. The people don’t deserve to see what we are doing at the moment. It is not the manager’s responsibility it is everyone. We are the ones that can get the results. It is about us not anybody else. We struggled a bit in the beginning with a lot of new players a lot of players going out but no more excuses."
Wolves boss Bruno Lage added: "For the chances we had and West Ham had, we don’t deserve that. But it happened and we need to move on. [We will] continue to work. I know the fans support us. We try to do our best for them.
"We’re in a bad moment, we don’t have goals or victories. We need to continue to work. I can promise we will work hard every day to bring good games and victories for the team. Look, we’ve played eight games. Look how many we lost when we had a striker in the team."
