At the start of the summer transfer window it was the assumption of everyone that Barcelona would look to sign a new holding midfielder, with Oriol Romeu unable to fill the void left by the departure of Sergio Busquets and the fact that Andreas Christensen was used out of position to try and perform the role of pivot under Xavi Hernández.
Then Hansi Flick became the new manager and with him came the rumors of Joshua Kimmich as a potential signing, thanks to the two working together at Bayern Munich and the German national team as well as Barça’s previous links with the player since the start of the year.