Clement Lenglet does not currently have a squad number at Barcelona as the La Liga champions hope to send him back to the Premier League with Tottenham Hotspur.
When Barca handed his number 15 shirt to Andreas Christensen in the summer of 2022 – the former Chelsea ace arriving to take Clement Lenglet’s place at the Camp Nou – it did not take much reading between the lines to realise that Xavi was not expecting the France international to return 12 months down the line.
As reported by Mundo Deportivo, Lenglet has now been registered as a Barcelona player once again on the official La Liga website, albeit without a squad number.
And, if the Blaugrana get their way, there will once again be a blank space where Lenglet’s face used to be on the La Liga website before the window closes next week. Negotations to take the former Sevilla stopper back to Tottenham Hotspur appear to have hit the buffers, however; Sport indicating that new Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou has serious reservations about bringing in a player now valued at a vastly-reduced fee of £13 million.
The signing of Micky van de Ven from Wolfsburg means Tottenham now have an exciting, technically-gifted left-footed centre-half in their ranks; the Dutchman stepping into the spot Lenglet occupied during much of his loan spell in North London last term.
Tottenham back away from Clement Lenglet after Van de Ven deal
“I spoke with the manager (before signing). I think that’s the most important part to make your decision,” Van de Ven tells talkSPORT. “Of course, you can talk with people from the club like the director, but he’s not going to train you on the pitch.
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“It’s the coach who has to make you better.
“You have to love his style of play, how he wants to play. You have to love it. Because, if you don’t get the vibe, the feeling, the system, then it’s not going to work. So, I talked with the trainer and everything in the meeting went well, and I love (Postecoglou’s) way of playing.
“So that made a really huge decision for me to go to Tottenham.
“He’s a lovely guy. He is so good for all of us, he’s quiet, but he’s straight in with what he wants. He is clear, everything is clear for everyone in the dressing room and everyone in the team knows what he has to do and what he is expecting from us.”
As for Lenglet, the most likely exit route for may now be Saudi Arabia; few clubs in Europe capable of matching the salary he currently takes home at the Camp Nou.
Barca have already sold Franck Kessie to Al-Ahli.
