Marco Verratti's Barça move's moment of truth
PSG start their pre-season on Tuesday and hope that the player will be present
Barça are waiting for the player to make the first move
So far the three parties involved in the Verratti saga have been immovable. The cards are on the table: Barça want Veratti, Verratti wants to go to Barça. And PSG want to keep Verratti. But PSG start pre-season training this Tuesday and everyone agrees that it's time for the cards to be played.
The player himself is the one who has to move first. It had been rumoured that this move would be missing the first day of training on Tuesday but this option now seems to have been more or less ruled out. The player's own advisors were the first to advise him not to do it and that it would be better for him to show up. And this was in spite of Barça suggesting that he shouldn't turn up, a repeat of the advice they gave Javier Mascherano when signing him from Liverpool.
A much more realistic move would be to force a meeting with Sheikh Nasser Al-Khelaïfi PSG's owner and president. And Verratti should use this meeting to appeal to the Sheik's more human side and convince the Sheikh that he is no longer happy in Paris and he just wants to move to Barça.
This is what Barça want - for Verratti to nudge open the door before making their move. That's why they have no intention to complicate things by sending a negotiating team to Paris. Barça will only make their move - an €80 million offer - if PSG show some flexibility.
Although Barça do not report back for pre-season training until 12 July, both the player nor the Catalan club want the deal done this week but it seems unlikely that the deal for their number 1 target could be done so quickly.
