{"id":16159,"date":"2025-10-15T19:35:40","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T19:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/2025\/10\/15\/chelsea-keen-on-recruiting-this-barcelona-defender-this-january-should-maresca-go-for-him\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T19:35:40","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T19:35:40","slug":"chelsea-keen-on-recruiting-this-barcelona-defender-this-january-should-maresca-go-for-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/2025\/10\/15\/chelsea-keen-on-recruiting-this-barcelona-defender-this-january-should-maresca-go-for-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea Keen On Recruiting This Barcelona Defender This January: Should Maresca Go For Him?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In a recent interview with TBR Football<\/a>, journalist Graeme Bailey claimed that Chelsea are keen on recruiting Barcelona<\/a> defender Eric Garcia this January. Bailey said, \u201cWe know Chelsea tried to sign Fermin, but now sources confirm they would happily have taken Cascado and Garcia too.<\/p>\n

\u201cInterest in Garcia remains, and Barcelona are now working hard on tying him down as his contract expires at the end of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am told Garcia is someone Chelsea would want in January, but the chances are he will have signed a new deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have been offered Araujo, and in theory, they do have an interest, but they are yet to be convinced he wants to leave Barcelona, so I do not believe they are pushing too hard on that.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould Araujo make it clear he would move, then things could very well change, but as it stands, he really isn\u2019t keen on leaving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia\u2019s Good Form In La Liga This Season<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Garcia has produced a run of solid displays for Barcelona in La Liga this season. The Spaniard has made ten appearances for the Catalan club so far in this campaign, scoring one goal across various competitions.<\/p>\n

\"Chelsea\"
MILAN, ITALY \u2013 MAY 06: Eric Garcia of FC Barcelona in action during the UEFA Champions League 2024\/25 Semi Final First Leg match between FC Internazionale Milano and FC Barcelona at Giuseppe Meazza Stadium on May 06, 2025 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 24-year-old has been a good performer on the defensive third of the pitch as he has made 14 tackles, eight blocks, eight interceptions and 17 clearances in La Liga<\/a>. He has also been careful when distributing the ball from the back after completing 89.5% of his attempted passes in the Spanish top tier (stats via fbref.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Should Chelsea Boss Enzo Maresca Go For Garcia?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Garcia is a good tackler of the ball and can sense the danger well to earn possession back for his team at the back. He usually puts his foot through the ball when required and can play his way out from inside his half.<\/p>\n

The Spanish talent would no doubt improve the quality of Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca\u2019s defence. He already knows the Premier League<\/a> well from his time at Manchester City and won\u2019t take much time to settle into life at Chelsea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At 24, Garcia has his peak years ahead of him. Hence, the Blues would be wise to go for a defender of his quality this January or at the end of this campaign.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a recent interview with TBR Football, journalist Graeme Bailey claimed that Chelsea are keen on recruiting Barcelona defender Eric Garcia this January. Bailey said, \u201cWe know Chelsea tried to sign Fermin, but now sources confirm they would happily have taken Cascado and Garcia too. \u201cInterest in Garcia remains, and Barcelona are now working hard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12815,"featured_media":16160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12815"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo76e71539\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}