Barcelona eyeing summer deal for Crystal Palace star
La Liga giants Barcelona are giving consideration to a summer swoop for a member of the defensive ranks at Crystal Palace.
That's according to , citing Antena 2, who point towards Daniel Muñoz as the player in the sights of the Barcelona brass.
Defender Muñoz has for his part enjoyed a stellar campaign to date.
Capable of lining out as any of a traditional right-back, wing-back, winger or even in midfield, the Colombian has featured from the off in all but one of Crystal Palace's Premier League fixtures.
And, alongside defensive stoutness, Muñoz has chipped in in the attacking third, to the tune of two goals and three assists.
Such exploits have not gone unnoticed across the English football landscape, with both Chelsea and Manchester City understood to be keeping a close eye on the situation of the 28-year-old.
And so too, it is claimed, are the aforementioned Barcelona.
As per MD, amid an ongoing search for reinforcements at full-back with a view to next season, the Blaugrana have earmarked Muñoz as a leading target.
Conor Laird – GSFN
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The ball ricocheted off his boot and looped over Bednarek, who was forced back, with Evanilson in close vicinity. Bednarek got there first and managed to hook the ball out for a Bournemouth throw by the corner flag — just the kind of high turnover Iraola wants from his team. Semenyo's anticipation has served him well on the other end of the pitch, too. In this example, from the 4-1 away win against Newcastle United in January, he initially does not press Anthony Gordon — the recipient of Bruno Guimaraes' pass — blocking the path for a ball inside to Tino Livramento instead. But when he notices Gordon is receiving on his weaker left foot, Semenyo sprints towards him, knowing the England forward will require an extra second to switch the ball to his right foot before passing infield to Sandro Tonali. This allows him to make a block, deflecting the pass intended for Tonali towards Ouattara (not in frame) to kickstart a counter-attack. 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New York Times
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Why are Bayer Leverkusen ready to pay more than £30m for Jarell Quansah?
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And why are the German side preparing to make him one of their most expensive signings? A move to the Bundesliga is one thing, but the sums involved for someone who made just four Premier League starts last season are surprising. Liverpool's data department will no doubt have run the numbers to assess Quansah's value compared with other centre-backs at a similar age across Europe, with Michael Edwards (previously the club's sporting director and now CEO of football with owners Fenway Sports Group) renowned for his record of delivering profitable returns on Liverpool's squad players. The most comparable example last summer would be 23-year-old centre-back Sepp van den Berg, who departed for Brentford for a fee of £20.2million. That was twice the market value placed on him by Transfermarkt at the time (£10.3m, a crowd-sourced figure). Quansah's current value on Transfermarkt is £17.1m. Other examples of Liverpool's profitable outgoings include Fabio Carvalho (that deal could be worth up to £27.5m), Dominic Solanke (£19m plus add-ons), Rhian Brewster (£23.5m) and Jordon Ibe (£15m), meaning Liverpool's efficient sales approach should come as little surprise among the fanbase. In today's market, Liverpool could point to similar centre-backs who have recently signed in the Premier League as an anchor point for their own negotiations. Maximilian Kilman's £40m move from Wolves to West Ham United would be a salient example that Liverpool could have calibrated on, with Joachim Andersen (£30m) providing a clear ballpark of the modern-day centre-back. Advertisement Liverpool would have still maximised the market if Quansah's £30m-plus sale goes through, with fellow young English centre-back Taylor Harwood-Bellis being the closest comparison to the 22-year-old in the past 12 months. With Harwood-Bellis moving from Manchester City to Southampton for £20m last summer (almost perfectly aligning with his market value), it shows that Liverpool would be foolish not to profit from the fee proposed for Quansah. This time last year, Liverpool's evaluation would have been higher. Having signed a new long-term contract in October, Liverpool were able to retain value based on the potential he has shown, but it highlights the difficult 2024-25 campaign Quansah endured, which saw him make 25 appearances, 13 of which were starts. Projected to be the club's future starting centre-back for the next 10 years, he only managed one as fourth choice as Joe Gomez was selected ahead of him when Konate was out for over a month in 2024. He suffered setbacks that he had to bounce back from. The first came on the opening day of the season when he was substituted at half time in Liverpool's 2-0 victory over Ipswich Town. Following a solid pre-season, Quansah was selected ahead of Ibrahima Konate but with Arne Slot unhappy because of his side's collective poor duel success rate, he sacrificed the young defender. His confidence was knocked and that was evident in the following performances. The sight of Quansah slumping down in his chair after being substituted towards the end of the 3-2 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion in October offered a snapshot into how things were going. Quansah had played well for 75 minutes, but then gave the ball away in the build up to Brighton's first goal and the second saw a shot deflect off him, wrong-footing Vitezslav Jaros. There was some serious misfortune, too. Quansah scored two own goals last season against West Ham (Carabao Cup) and Chelsea (Premier League). Both involved one of his team-mates — Wataru Endo and Van Dijk respectively — booting the ball at him from less than a yard away and it rebounding into the net. Wrong place, wrong time and very little he could do about it. Advertisement His performances were a mixed bag, which was not helped by a lack of consistent action. In January, a positive showing against Lille in the Champions League was followed by a poor one against PSV a few weeks later. Understandably, when playing next to Van Dijk, he looked comfortable, but less so when he didn't. Stylistically, Quansah is not afraid to stick a foot in when the ball is there to be won. Comparing his 'true' tackles — which denote tackles attempted plus challenges lost plus fouls committed — with his fellow centre-backs since the start of 2023-24, only five players average more than his 4.9 per 1,000 touches. Such is his imposing frame, Quansah backs himself to step into a challenge on the ground or in the air (4.9 aerial duels per 90 minutes). The difficulty has been his success rate in those challenges, with a true tackles win rate (63 per cent) that is in the bottom half among his positional peers. Aerially, his 65 per cent win rate is good enough for the 21st-best in his cohort, but notably lower than fellow centre-backs Konate (71 per cent) and Van Dijk (77 per cent). Slot spoke positively about the centre-back's mentality during the second half of the season and was pleased with his performance levels. His most memorable moment of the league campaign came via a crucial late interception in a 2-1 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers (below). However, the Dutchman's comments following the 3-1 defeat by Chelsea in May offer the potential reason why Liverpool are comfortable letting him go. In a similar fashion to the Brighton game, Quansah did fine but scored an own goal and conceded a late penalty, fouling Moises Caicedo after Dominik Szoboszlai's attempted pass to him lacked sufficient power. 'Jarell is fast, strong and comfortable on the ball,' Slot told reporters. 'He has every ingredient a centre-back for this club should have. Now the last parts should be consistency in his performances.' 'To play in this team, you need to be really, really, really good and he is competitive with the other ones. But he was maybe a bit unlucky that the other ones stayed fit throughout the whole season and they have so much consistency in their levels. Advertisement 'Jarell has had consistency as well but one moment can change the perception of a game. One moment can also lead to us losing or winning a game of football. These small details can make a big difference in a season. That's why to play at Liverpool you need to do so many things well at the highest level — but the moment you do so, he can play here for so many years to come.' Liverpool were not actively looking to sell Quansah this summer and value him as a young squad player with potential to become a regular England international. But as with others on the edges of Slot's squad, there is a price where a sale would be sanctioned. And in a World Cup year, it is understandable for the defender to be seeking more game time in the hopes of making Thomas Tuchel's squad next summer. Yet with Liverpool now needing to bolster their own centre-back options this summer, there is an irony in that the profile of player they would be most closely linked with would be someone like Quansah. Financial implications notwithstanding, there is a curiousness to the exit of such a young, promising English talent that is already attuned to Slot's way of playing. In Leverkusen, he is joining a side that are remodeling their defensive unit in a summer of change after manager Xabi Alonso departed for Real Madrid and Erik ten Hag replaced him. Liverpool have signed Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong, while fellow defenders Jonathan Tah (Bayern Munich) and Odilon Kossounou (Napoli) have left. Fellow centre-back Piero Hincapie could also move on. Goalkeeper Mark Flekken has already arrived from Brentford and Quansah will not be the final defensive arrival this summer as they overhaul that department. For the German side, this is an investment in potential. Slot has shown his ruthless side, allowing the next stages of Quansah's development and the natural growing pains young players go through to happen away from Anfield. Last season did not make Quansah a bad player in only his second season at senior level. He has shown he has the ability to play at the top of the game, and this could be the perfect move for the defender to prove that again.
