Barcelona have not tabled an official bid for Argentina forward – Romero

Barcelona remain on the hunt for a new striker as we approach the final week of the summer transfer window.

The club are still in the race to sign Julian Alvarez, but have also set their sights on other alternatives, including his compatriot Lautaro Martinez.

The Inter Milan forward has been linked with a move to Catalonia, even though Inter’s president has recently poured water over that possibility.

Lautaro is not an option for Barcelona. (Photo by Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images)

Barcelona-based journalist Gerard Romero has offered an update on the club’s pursuit of Lautaro, adding that they have not yet tabled an official bid.

As per Romero, Lautaro himself has also not received any offer from the Catalans, which is not very surprising.

While the Argentine international was a serious option for Barcelona a few years ago, he is no longer a priority target for the club.

The Catalans are much more serious about signing his compatriot Julian Alvarez, though Atletico Madrid are still not ready to offload their star player to a direct rival.

With just about a week remaining before the market shuts down, Barcelona are also running out of options, should they fail to sign Alvarez.

Barcelona are running out of Julian Alvarez alternatives. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

The club have been linked with Viktor Gyokeres, Luis Suarez, Nicolo Tresoldi and even Victor Osimhen, but none of them seem to convince the Blaugrana.

That is perhaps why the Catalans are taking the option of Hamza Abdelkarim more seriously, knowing the young Egyptian may have the potential to become the ultimate number nine for the club.

He is certainly being trained as such, whereas Barcelona have other players in the team who can operate as a number nine.

These players include Karim Adeyemi, Dani Olmo and even Raphinha. Therefore, even if Alvarez doesn’t join the club this summer, Barcelona do have options they can count on in order to momentarily solve the striker problem.

As for Lautaro, he looks set to continue at Inter Milan, for the time being.