Barcelona 'considering Arda Turan sale' to fund Lionel Messi £30.6m-a-year new deal

Barcelona are reportedly considering parting ways with Arda Turan in order to generate the funds to renew Lionel Messi's contract. AS adds that negotiations between the Catalan club and the Argentina international over a new deal are currently far from over, as the player is demanding more than €35m (£30.6m, $37.3m) per season to commit his long-term future to the Nou Camp.

Neymar, Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets, Javier Mascherano and Ivan Rakitic have all put pen to paper on new deals at Barcelona in recent months. The club have been in negotiations for Messi to follow the same path as his current contract will expire in the summer of 2018.

In January Barcelona technical secretary Robert Fernandez tried to play down the fears of fans after saying that the negotiations with the Argentina international were on track.

"The renovation is going well, very well. I'm very relaxed, as I was before with Mascherano, Busquets, Suarez or Neymar. And I am now with Marc [Andre Ter Stegen], Ivan [Rakitic], Andres [Iniesta] and Leo. We're working and I'm convinced that the four players will continue with Barca. It doesn't matter much who will be the first to renew. There will be people who want to poison the situation, but we've been working on this issue for a long time," Fernandez said then.

Barcelona eventually announced the renewal of Rakitic last week but the club are yet to provide any update on Messi.

AS now explains that the reasons behind Barcelona silent is because the two parties are far from in agreement.

Barcelona chief executive Oscar Grau said earlier in the season that the club needed to use "common sense" to reach an agreement as they cannot offer the Argentine a blank cheque.

And AS now suggests this is the main problem as Messi is demanding a deal worth in excess of €35m-a-year to commit his long-term future to the Nou Camp.

Barcelona, according to the report, are considering placing extraneous players such as Turan on the market in order to generate the funds to fulfil Messi's wishes.

Turan has failed to establish himself in Luis Enrique's plans since his arrival from Atletico Madrid and Cadena Cope recently reported that he is considering making a move to China in the summer after having received various big-money offers from the Far East.