Barcelona make contract decision on £17m-rated defender, prepare two-year offer

Barcelona have made a U-turn in their decision to offload Sergi Roberto this summer and will now offer him a new deal. The right-back's current deal expires in 2022 with the club now reportedly preparing a new two-year offer.

The Catalan club have been hit financially owing to the ongoing pandemic. They are desperate to raise funds and reduce the club's wage bill, which has seen them put a number of first-team stars up for sale.

Roberto was part of the group that included Philippe Coutinho, Samuel Umtiti, Martin Braitwaite and Neto among others that are expected to find new homes this summer. The Spain international was valued at €25 million (£17m) but the club has not received any offers thus far.

Apart from not receiving any offers, Barcelona also failed to offload him by including him as part of player-plus-cash deals to Manchester City. The La Liga club are interested in Aymeric Laporte, Bernardo Silva and Joao Cancelo, but the Premier League club were not interested in taking Roberto as part of any deal.

According to Marca, the club's failure to receive a bid and offload him via a player swap has seen them change their stance. They are now said to be pondering a two-year contract, which will keep him at the club until 2024.

The Catalan club feel the new contract will not only help them protect his value ahead of next summer's transfer market, it will also prevent him from walking away for nothing. Moreover, they are hoping that they can renegotiate his payment terms to help reduce the club's already inflated wage bill.

It is claimed that Barcelona did have an offer of €60 million for Roberto last summer, but turned it down. The Catalan club are hoping that their right-back can put his injury troubles behind him and improve his value by next summer with the hope that the financial climate will see an upturn.