It seems Barcelona defender Martin Montoya will leave the Catalan club in the summer. The 24-year-old has struggled to get regular games at the Camp Nou under Luis Enrique, and he is determined to move elsewhere in the summer.
Montoya broke into the Barcelona first team in 2011 after graduating from the famous La Masia academy, and he looked certain to become the first-choice right back after Dani Alves. However, with Alves having signed a contract extension, and Enrique favouring Adriano and Douglas ahead of the Spaniard, the home grown lad, Montoya has been badly neglected.
According to reports from Sport, Montoya won’t start preseason with Barca. Inter Milan & Liverpool made a formal approach to sign him, however, the Catalan newspaper claim that the Reds have the advantage here as they have been targeting him for a while. The biggest issue is his €3m per year wage demands, although it should not be a problem for Liverpool.
It seems highly unlikely that Liverpool would sign Montoya this summer. The Reds have agreed a deal to sign Southampton’s highly rated right back Nathaniel Clyne, and therefore signing another right back doesn’t make any sense.
Liverpool already have talented young defenders like Javier Manquillo (on loan) and Jon Flanagan in their ranks, and signing Montoya would bring an unnecessary competition for places which could disrupt the balance in the team as well.