New report sheds light on Thiago complications

Barcelona are launching a last-ditch bid to prevent Thiago from leaving the club for Manchester United, according to a new report from ESPN's Miguel Delaney.

Delaney's proven himself to be very reliable in the past, and the report says that Barcelona will make a final offer to try and keep Thiago from joining United. According to Delaney, a number of stalling tactics have been deployed by the club both towards the player and United, and we're trying to get things sewn up as quickly as possible.

As we discussed last night, the news that the deal will involve a 'buy-back clause' appears to be an exaggeration - it's a first refusal instead, which is next to useless, since it only happens if a transfer takes place anyway. Delaney also mentions that things aren't as simple as United triggering the release clause and taking Barcelona out of the equation, so that explains why things are taking so long.

The worrying thing about this is that it means Thiago will have another chance to reject us, but it's unlikely that anyone leaves a club like Barcelona on a whim. He simply can't be guaranteed a starting place at Camp Nou like he can at Old Trafford. Xavi is a year older, but that's about it. He's still a great player and still at the club, along with Andres Iniesta and Cesc Fabregas. Barcelona might be insistent, but ultimately nothing is going to change.

Anyway, it looks like we're into the final lap here. The report says we want to tie it up within the next seven days, and it's very likely that we'll know the outcome one way or another by this time next week.

Oh, and one last thing: you'll notice this Thiago story is now a stream - if you subscribe to the storystream or like it on Facebook, you'll be notified whenever we post updates.