Barcelona near deal for 31-year-old after rejecting offer to sign Brazilian

Miralem Pjanic's move from Barcelona to Juventus is as close as it has ever been this summer, with both clubs edging closer to agreeing a deal. The Serie A club was again ready to offer a swap deal, but it was quickly rejected by the Catalan club, as they simply want to get the Bosnian midfielder off their wage bill.

The 31-year-old midfielder arrived from Juventus last summer but failed to make an impact in his debut La Liga campaign. He made less than 10 starts under Ronald Koeman in the league, and has been informed that he is now surplus to requirements by director of football Matheu Alemany.

Pjanic has not played a single minute of Barcelona's last two pre-season friendlies and the latest one was their 3-0 win over Juventus - his potential future employers. According to Sport, the two clubs are in advanced talks over a move after the midfielder agreed to take a 20 percent pay cut to move to Italy.

It is unclear if Barcelona will be offered a fee for Pjanic or if the deal will be a loan deal with an obligation to make it permanent in 2022. Juventus are also struggling financially and will need to offload a player to make room for the Bosnia international.

As part of the negotiations, the report claims that midfielder Arthur Melo made himself available to move in the opposite direction, which was swiftly turned down by Barcelona. The Brazilian was part of the swap deal that brought Pjanic to the Camp Nou in what was a €60 million deal (£50.8m) in 2020.

However, the Catalan giants have no intention of welcoming the former Gremio midfielder back to the club this summer. Barcelona are said to be unimpressed by his lack of professionalism, poor injury record and lack of on-field impact during his last spell at the club.

The La Liga outfit are looking to slash their over-inflated wage bill after all the overspending in recent campaigns. Pjanic's departure will certainly make an impact, but the club are looking for new homes for a number of other first-team stars like Samuel Umtiti, Neto and Martin Braithwaite among others.