Neymar will cost Barça €60m

Barcelona wants to wrap up Neymar’s transfer as soon as possible and it has its reasons. Mainly because he is the club’s coaching staff’s number one transfer target, one which has the full backing of the club’s hierarchy as it moves to strengthen its squad. Other reasons are that Real Madrid’s interest in the player pushes up his price and finally that however much the club spends on Neymar will then determine who else it can bring in.
Santos wants €60m for its star. That’s €20m more than the Catalan club had expected to spend when it started negotiations two years ago. Sanllehí has travelled to Brazil to negotiate with his club and he’s trying to lower his transfer fee, but Santos isn’t budging. Another meeting took place tonight to try and reach an agreement.
Although Neymar would prefer to leave Santos in 2014, knowing what he will cost is crucial. Barça is going to spend €50m, plus whatever it raises from the sale of other players. For that reason, the clubs needs to know his transfer fee in order to know how much it needs to raise to complete the deal.
The Catalan club plans to spend no more on a new goalkeeper than the money it raises from selling Valdés. Signing a centre-back, for example Hummels, would have to be paid for by selling players like Villa, Dos Santos, Fontás, Bojan, Bartra and one or two others. The sum of these sales – the club expects to get €15m for Villa alone – would raise the €25m needed to sign the defender that Tito needs.