Jose Mourinho wants Roma to sign star from Barcelona's La Masia - Reports
Jose Mourinho is reportedly asking AS Roma to sign Barcelona's youth academy player Angel Alarcon. I Giallorossi are supposedly willing to pay €3 million for his services.
According to El Nacional, Alarcon's chances of getting regular minutes with the first team are minimal. He's also not guaranteed a starting berth in Barcelona's B team, managed by Rafa Marquez.
Mourinho has apparently contacted the 19-year-old Spanish winger over a potential move to Italy's capital. The report claims that the Portuguese manager has promised him a chance at getting minutes with Roma's senior squad.
The introduction of 16-year-old Lamine Yamal in Barca's first team and the return of Ez Abde from his loan spell at Osasuna has impacted Alarcon's chances at first-team minutes. He played only five games for Xavi's team last season.
It seems unlikely that Alarcon will win favor under the Spanish manager anytime soon, especially with Barca's plethora of options in attack. Apart from Abde and Yamal, they have Robert Lewandowski, Ferran Torres, Ansu Fati and Raphinha.
Roma, meanwhile, sold two wingers, Justin Kluivert and Carles Perez, this summer but haven't signed any new players in that position.
Xavi Hernandez says Barcelona deserved more goals in Villarreal win
Barcelona survived a huge scare against Villarreal at the Estadio de la Ceramica on Sunday (August 27).
The Blaugrana raced to a 2-0 lead within half an hour, with goals from Gavi and Frenkie de Jong. However, callous defending allowed the Yellow Submarine to level the scores before half-time.
Alex Baena scored five minutes into the second half to give Villarreal a 3-2 lead at home. Ferran Torres was brought on in the 63rd minute, and he made it 3-3 five minutes later.
Robert Lewandowski completed the comeback in the 71st minute, but Xavi reckons his side should have scored more against Villarreal. He also implied that Barca got complacent when they were two goals in front but praised the way they reacted to falling behind.
Xavi said, via BarcaTV+ (h/t BarcaUniversal):
"It was a very good match in general. We should have scored two or three more goals.
"We were bad in defence. After the 0-2, we conceded a lot of chances. Our mistakes cost us. After the 3-2, we started playing good football. The result in the end was fair. We deserved more goals."
The visitors managed 21 shots compared to Villarreal's 13 and had an xG of 3.07, in comparison to the hosts' 1.86 (h/t FotMob). Barcelona also missed five big chances and scored with four of their 11 efforts on target.