According to reports, Barcelona will be forced to exclude one of their four January signings from their UEFA Europa League squad.
The Catalan club were busy in the January transfer window, bringing in four players; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Arsenal, Ferran Torres from Man City in a permanent deal, Dani Alves and Adama Traore on-loan from Wolves.
But according to a report in the Daily Mail, manager Xavi will be forced to drop one of these players when registering his squad for the Europa League.
This is because European competitions only allow a maximum of three new players signed during the January transfer market to feature.
Whichever player Xavi chooses will not represent Barcelona on the European stage for the remainder of the season.
According to Spanish publication Marca, Xavi will most likely sacrifice former Arsenal captain Aubameyang for the remaining European campaign.
The newspaper suggests that it is unlikely that Xavi would drop striker Torres because the club paid £55million to acquire his services from City.
Dani Alves, another player in the pool, will most likely feature in Xavi’s side, considering Sergino Dest or Oscar Mingueza have failed to prove their worth to the manager on the right-wing.
Traore is another option, but Barca are short in wide areas because youngsters Ez Abde and Ferran Jutgla will be unable to play in Europe because they were not registered on the B list at the start of the preseason. Traore is most likely to feature in Xavi’s side.
Another important factor in considering who to drop is that Xavi has alternative options to Aubameyang in the forward line, including Memphis Depay, Martin Braithwaite, Ferran and Luuk de Jong.
