In an interesting twist, Valencia now claim that they will not sell Paco Alcacer to Barcelona. The 22-year-old Spaniard has had the Catalans hot on his heels after his most productive La Liga season yet, as Barcelona’s much-publicized search for a forward has continued throughout the summer. The 2014/15 Champions League winners have the most magical trio in the world in Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi, and Neymar, but having an able option to rotate with them has been considered a priority for the Spanish giants.
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Reports were streaming in only yesterday that Barcelona’s bid of €30 million would be accepted by Valencia, but the Los Che president has refuted these reports publicly.
"If it's in doubt, we don't want to sell Paco Alcacer," Lay Hoon said, "He's part of a legacy at Valencia and that is something we're clear about."
It’s unclear what Lay Hoon’s attempts to convince the fans that Alcacer will stay at Valencia actually mean for the future, as Barcelona are always a difficult club to turn down for any player and Alcacer could yet push the transfer through. Barcelona are believed to have a 5-year contract waiting for him.
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What is clear is that Valencia will not let go of another of their talented young players easily after already having lost several players in the ongoing transfer window. Andre Gomes is the most prominent departure from the Mestalla, and Alvaro Negredo, Antonio Barragan, Pablo Piatti, Sofiane Feghouli and Rodrigo De Paul are some of the other players who have left the club.
The ever changing squad has made it hard for managers to achieve any sort of consistency with the team, and the fans are understandably unhappy. Selling Alcacer, a player who has been at the club for the last 7 years and has come up from the youth academy and the B-team will not be a popular decision. His increasing importance in the national team setup (he has 6 goals in 13 caps) also ensures that he is an important asset.
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It remains to be seen now how Barcelona react to Lay Hoon’s statements, and whether they choose to speed up their pursuit of Alcacer and up their bid or begin to look for other targets. Their coach Luis Enrique refused to be drawn into making a statement on the reports and said,
“I have a rule not to comment on players who do not play for us because otherwise, I would have had to talk about more than 543 strikers.”
