Confusion over Íñigo Martínez as Barcelona decide against paying his release clause

The Iñigo Martinez situation is the best case to highlight Barcelona's doubts in the transfer market. Pushed on by Ernesto Valverde's wish to sign the player, Barcelona made contact with Real Sociedad and his uncle regarding a possible transfer. With Iñaki Ibáñez working as the intermediary, Real Sociedad made their stance quite clear: Iñigo Martinez was worth the €32 million printed in his contract and nothing less.

Barcelona turn attention to Colombia's Yerry Mina

It was taken for granted that the central defender was headed for Barcelona even though his absence on La Real's flight to England to play Watford had nothing to do with the speculation - he asked to be left behind to do extra work after an injury at the end of last season. Recently, however, Barcelona have gotten cold feet and decided that the asking price was too high and would, instead, wait for Yerry Mina, who has a buyout clause of €9 million. The Colombian is currently playing in the Copa Libertadores with Palmeiras and the blaugranas will wait until the Brazilian club have finished their involvement in that competition to activate that clause.

The Íñigo Martínez case is not completely closed, however. The relationship between the presidents of both clubs, Jokin Aperribay and Josep Bartomeu is good and Bartomeu knows he is worth the price tag so a deal could yet be reached. Martínez dreams of playing for one of the elite teams and asked that his release clause not be too high when negotiating his last deal. The 26-year-old, however, was recently married to a girl from Ondarroa, on the coast close to San Sebastian, and does not have a desperate desire to leave and does not want to leave on the last day of the window through the back door.