Umtiti Rejects Rumours Of Being Used In Bargaining Plans For Neymar

Umtiti has rubbished rumours linking him with a move away from Barcelona with Arsenal one of his most likely destinations.

It was rumoured that the French centre-back was a potential bargaining chip in the Blaugranas bid to bring back Neymar to the Camp Nou.

Transfer talk and speculations circled round the Brazilian for the most part of the summer transfer window. It was then suggested by several media outlets that Umtiti who has fallen down the pecking order at Barcelona could be on his way out to fund to release funds for the signing of Neymar.

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Umtiti claims that a new challenge at Arsenal wasn’t one he even considered.

“Honestly, I don’t know where this rumour with Arsenal came from,” the French man told Canal Football Club.

“Overnight, I received messages from my friends ‘ah, so you are joining Arsenal?’ I’m not, I’m sorry but I’m staying at Barcelona.

“Contacts with Arsenal? To be honest, I don’t know if they had conversations with my agent, I just told him that I didn’t care what was happening this summer and that it wasn’t even necessary to talk to me about it.

“It was useless, I was going to have the same answer.

“My dream as a child is to play for Barcelona. Last season was the most difficult of my career, especially in terms of injuries.”

The centre-back was limited to only 14 appearances last term with a series of niggling knocks and injuries keeping out on the sidelines for extended periods of time.

In fact, he’s picked up another injury which has kept him of France’s latest squad for the Euro 2020 qualifying round of matches.

Consequently, Barcelons were rumoured to be willing to use Umtiti as a makeweight in a bid to prise Neymar away from the Parc des Princes.

However, Umtiti is adamant that he never considered moving away from Barcelona talk more of return to his homeland to play for Paris Saint Germain.