New offensive for Alves

Both main Catalan sports papers claim that Barcelona will launch a new offensive for Sevilla right back defender and Brazilian international Daniel 'Dani' Alves (25) this week.

Barcelona president Joan Laporta has taken charge of the negotiations last week and is holding phone conversations with Sevilla president José María del Nido. With a vote of no confidence against his board coming up, it is expected Laporta wants to sign Alves before that vote will take place at the end of June or the beginning of July.

Two weeks of negotiations have nevertheless not lead to any progress. Both clubs don't seem to move from their position: Sevilla is holding on to their initial asking price of 35 millon euro° while Barcelona is only offering 25 million euro°. It is expected that Barcelona would be willing to rise their bid to 30 million euro°. Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that Barcelona would want to close the deal paying 28 million euro° plus 2 million euro° variables.

Although Sevilla manager Manolo Jiménez said to the official club radio that Sevilla won't be able to keep Alves and that the staff is already looking for a player to replace him, Sevilla president Del Nido doesn't seem to move.

Two weeks ago, the Sevilla president suggested the player will stay if no deal can be found: "Dani Alves has a contract for four more years, so we're calm about this. In the past, we already had bids of more than 25 million euro° that we rejected. But if a club offers me what I'm asking, we have a deal."

This week, Del Nido said that Sevilla has this year already received three offers for Alves, but that he didn't like none of them at this moment: "We don't plan to change our position on the transfer fee a lot, although in a negotiation you must be able to be somewhat flexible."

Alves, who is believed to have a personal agreement with Barcelona (read more here), meanwhile kept declaring he wants to leave. After the last training with Sevilla he repeated his exit wish and hoped for a quick solution. Alves also gave interviews to El Mundo Deportivo and Sport and didn't mind posing with the blaugrana shirt.

This week Alves said in Brazil to journalists that he hopes both presidents will reach an agreement: "There's a real possibilty that I will leave for Barcelona. This would be an important step in my career. I wait for the two presidents to meet and to find a positive solution for all parties. I want to leave Sevilla by the front door."

Read more:

Official talks on Alves to start tomorrow

Alves chooses Barcelona
Personal agreement with Alves