Girona coach Michel declares he wants TWO Barca players

Girona boss Michel claims he wants Oriol Romeu and Eric Garcia at Girona next season.

"Oriol is a player that I have had here and I would like him to return," Michel said.

"Hopefully, Eric too. He belongs to Barca and he would be a 'top' signing." Michel added.

Barcelona are expected to offload Romeu this summer. The midfielder cost Barca just €3.4m in the summer – part of which he paid from his own pocket. Still, you'd assume Barca will demand some sort of transfer fee to let him go.

As for Garcia, he's likely to become a benchwarmer if he insists on staying at Barca next season. It would be hard to get into the team ahead of Cubarsi, Araujo, Martinez and Christensen.

Barca should be wary of strengthening Girona with more of their players though. The Barcelona-based team beat Barca home and away this season with both games ending 4-2. But that's not the biggest harm they could do to Barca this term.

If Girona finishes second in La Liga it would deal a financial blow to Barca and prevent them from signing players on the 1:1 rule. That's because Barca would miss out on a Super Cup slot.

'He had a spot here': Xavi hints at desire to keep one player who's out on loan