The Fans Football Blog3

German tabloid Bild claims that Barcelona would already have been holding secret talks with Schalke 04 attacking midfielder and Croatian international Ivan Rakitić (20) about a January transfer.

Asked about the rumour that Barcelona would be preparing a 14 million euro° bid for Rakitic (read more here), Schalke manager Fred Rutten is quoted as saying he doesn't know anything about the issue.