Barcelona putting Samuel Umtiti in the shop window
The French defender has started both of the first two friendlies of the summer
Samuel Umtiti’s presence in the two line ups so far is to do with the club’s need to put him in the shop window this summer. Umtiti started against Nastic and Girona, going off at half-time in both.
Ronald Koeman is not counting on Umtiti this season, and he has fallen well out of favour after he joined from Lyon in 2016-17, starting off very well. However he hurt his knee in 2018 and after that has never been the same.
Umtiti has shown in the friendlies he’s in good shape and is looking fit. He seems to have been working on his strength this summer, working out in the gym as you can see on his social media feeds.
The problem is, on top of not being able to play several games in a row because of injury, that he has a very high salary other clubs can’t match. Barca are desperate for him to leave as they need to hack down their wage bill.
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