Scouting Barcelona Transfer Target Luciano Vietto

It has proved difficult for Barcelona to fill the vacant striker slot behind Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez.

Luis Enrique wants another hitman to give him a different option and to provide cover when injury befalls one of his star players, but few players fit the combination of both good enough to play that role and willing to.

After all, any striker good enough to be considered a viable reserve to the MSN would surely have ambitions of leading the line elsewhere.

Moves for Nolito, Hatem Ben Arfa and Ousmane Dembele came to nothing, with those three forwards moving to Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund, respectively.

It looked like Barcelona’s bid to take Luciano Vietto from Atletico Madrid had failed, too, with Diario Sport reporting that Sevilla had convinced him to sign for them.

They wrote: “Vietto was convinced by something at Sevilla that Barcelona could not assure him of—minutes on the pitch.”

However Lluis Miguelsanz, for the same newspaper, wrote on Saturday:

Barça are better placed to sign Vietto after agreeing to buy his economic rights, while Sevilla are, for now, only contemplating whether to go through with the transfer. This has allowed the Catalan club to strike a deal early on with Atletico Madrid, who need finances themselves to sign new players of their own.

The agreement between Barça and Atletico would be closed for 22 million euros plus three million in variables.

Vietto is the only person holding up the deal from being completed, as he continues to continue his pre-season preparations with Los Rojiblancos.

Vietto did not have a sparkling season at Atletico Madrid after signing for them last summer from Villarreal for around €21 million.

He had scored 12 goals in 32 league games for Villarreal in 2014-15, after joining them from Racing Club in Argentina. Vietto scored 20 in 48 across all competitions, and the Rojiblancos decided to jump in and sign him.

However, he managed a miserable three goals in 28 games for Atletico last season, with just one from 19 in La Liga.

Diego Simeone was not overly impressed with his compatriot, playing him for the full 90 minutes on just one occasion in …

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