Barcelona identify Chelsea star as Marcus Rashford alternative

Marcus Rashford is on the brink of his dream move to Barcelona this summer, after shinning on his loan spell at Camp Nou.

With ten goals and 13 assists in 38 games, Rashford has been impressing Hansi Flick in his debut La Liga season.

As such, things appeared to be as good as done to make his move permanent, with a £26 million optional buy clause in the loan deal looking like a bargain.

It’s also understood that his wage has also been agreed, so the move as basically good to go.

However, new reports from Mundo Deportivo have cast fresh doubts on how certain the move is.

The Spanish outlet explains that Barcelona are also looking at Chelsea’s Pedro Neto as a potential alternate option to Marcus Rashford.

This season, the 26-year-old has made 42 appearances, grabbing ten goals and six assists for the London-based side.

Whilst this is significantly lower than Rashford’s output, the report explains Barcelona are attracted to his versatility to play across both wings as well as his ability to unsettle defences.

Another boost in their pursuit of him is his agent being Jorge Mendes, who is close with Barca board of directors and especially Deco.

For now though, it’s understood that no approach has been made as of yet, with the reigning La Liga champions only monitoring the attacker for now.

However the club have also been monitoring former Barcelona wingers, Abde Ezzalzouli of Real Betis and RCD Mallorca’s Jan Virgili.

With more reports now emerging of Barcelona monitoring wingers, even with Rashford’s strong performances, it does automatically cast doubt on where the club actually stand on signing the Manchester United attacker this summer.