La Liga: Girona infuriated after Barcelona contacted Oriol Romeu

Girona have been left infuriated with a report of Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez contacting the club’s midfielder Oriol Romeu.

Barcelona are on the hunt for a new defensive midfielder this summer following the departure of Sergio Busquets and are set to miss out on key target Marcelo Brozovic, who is close to swapping Inter for Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia.

Spanish media named 31-year-old Romeu, a La Masia graduate, as a possible target for Xavi and have even gone as far as to claim the Barcelona boss has personally reached out to Romeu about a summer return to Camp Nou.

Romeu is thought to have a release clause of 5 million euros which means the deal can be done if Barcelona decides to activate the option and Romeu wants to move.

Girona team-mate Arnau Martinez has already backed the move, saying he thinks the midfielder would be a “perfect fit” for Barcelona.

Following a report of Xavi Hernandez contacting Oriol Romeu, Girona has released a statement asking the Barcelona Manager to play by the rules.

It read;

“We know that Xavi has called our player and Oriol Romeu is not free, he has a contract with Girona until 2025, so we say that this cannot be done.” 

Romeu joined Barcelona’s academy in 2004 and made two appearances for the first team during the 2010/11 campaign, before being snapped up by Chelsea in 2011.

Various loans and a permanent switch to Southampton followed, with Romeu landing back in Spain with Girona last summer. The veteran was one of the top performers in Michel’s side, attracting plenty of praise for playing some sensational football as Girona finished tenth in La Liga in their first season back in the top flight.