Summer sale needed to fund Barcelona contract negotiations

Barcelona will have to sell one of their biggest stars during the summer if they are to have any hope of tying up the contract renewal of Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta.

The Blaugrana are currently under the fiscal pump after tripling the wages of Neymar and awarding Luis Suarez with a new deal worth 16 million euros a season.

The pair of deals has pushed has pushed Barcelona's budget close to the 70% limit LaLiga clubs place on wage expenditures.

While talks are currently in the preliminary stages, the club are intent on keeping Messi - whose contract expires in the summer of 2018 - at the club as the main exponent of the club's project.

Meanwhile, midfielder Iniesta has made it no secret that he wants to end his career at the Camp Nou and is pushing for a new contract.

As such, the club are prepared to listen to offers for Aleix Vidal, Jeremy Mathieu, Ivan Rakitic and Arda Turan during the next transfer window with the Turk, who is targeted by Chinese Super League clubs, most likely to bring in the cash.

It's a situation the club has faced before: in 2014, Alexis Sanchez and Cesc Fabregas flew to the Premier League. In 2015, Pedro left for Chelsea whilst last summer the sale of Claudio Bravo and the exit of Dani Alves allowed the side to bring in new blood.