The Fans Football Blog3

Catalan sports paper Sport claims that Barcelona goalkeeper Víctor Valdés (26) is the next player with whom Barcelona wants to close a renewal deal, after the club has reached agreements on the contract renewals of midfielders Xavi and Busquets.

Barcelona sports director Txiki Begiristain already started negotiating a few weeks ago with José Manuel Valdés, the father and agent of the player whose current contract expires in the summer of 2010. The club now wants to accelerate the talks.

Although in previous meetings some clauses have been established, a deal still wouldn't be anywhere near. With Begiristain unexpectedly having to travel to Japan to stand by his sick brother, the negotiations have now been stopped and a deal won't be closed as early as expected.

It would already have been agreed upon that Valdés will renew until 2014 and that his buyout clause will continue to be 100 million euro°. The main difference would be the salary of the Catalan goalkeeper and more specifically the division between the fixed part and the incentives.

Barcelona's absolute priority is to renew Valdés but although the club wants to make a financial effort for that, there would also have been contacts with other goalkeepers just in case the negotiations would fail. One of these goalkeepers that has been sounded out to hear more about his current contract situation and his willingness to join Barcelona is Villareal goal keeper Diego López (27) (read more here).

Catalan sports weekly paper Gol claims that the negotiations have reached a dead point because of the high demands of Valdés. Barcelona is ready to make the player a slightly higher offer, which at this moment isn't enough for the Catalan goalkeeper who would have threatened to leave.

The first option of Valdés is nevertheless to continue at Barcelona. The club and Barcelona manager Guardiola want to keep the player but Barcelona would have fixed a maximum salary of 2,8 million euro a year, with Valdés now earning around 2 million euro.

Spanish news agency EFE claims that Valdés has asked to earn as much as top goalkeepers like Real Madrid's Casillas. Barcelona would for now have blocked the negotiations because they cannot accept the demands put forward by the Catalan player.

Read more:
Renewal talks with Valdes could get difficult
Villareal goalkeeper Diego Lopez tops wish list
Puyol, Xavi and Valdes offered to renew until 2014