Now or never for Pjanic

Miralem Pjanic's signing is starting to become a priority for Barcelona. The Bosnian has always been liked and linked with Barca on quite a few occasions, especially in the year he moved to Juventus from Roma.

Pjanic has just turned 30 so you cannot think of him as a long term signing and it catches the attention that, to get him, Barca are considering getting rid of Arthur Melo, who will turn 24 in a few months.

The creative midfielder is good at striking the ball from set pieces although Messi could also do that. He is like Luka Modric, but he reaches the opposition box more and is a bit less creative.

In 2016, Barca ended up going for Andre Gomes instead of the Bosnian and it proved to be a mistake.

Curiously, Pjanic is a player who has well liked at Barca since his time at Lyon. A goal of his against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu when he was just 19, saw Real Madrid get knocked out of the Champions League in the 2009-10 season.

He played for three seasons at Lyon and the 2008-09 campaign was precisely his best one. The Bosnian midfielder played more games in any season of his career, 53, and scored 11 goals as well as getting 13 assists.

But that was a decade ago. He then played for five seasons at Roma before going to Juventus where he has continued to show his class.

Barca are still fighting to sign him because they see him as the perfect reinforcement in midfield. The question is whether Arthur will stay and be used from time to time instead of Pjanic or whether the Brazilian will leave the club.