Portuguese newspaper O Jogo on Wednesday have a big article about the future of Alejandro Grimaldo and a possible move to Benfica. Grimaldo is a 19 year old left back who has represented Spain at every level from U16 to U21, he's clearly highly rated to have got in the U21 selection at his age.
Grimaldo has played more than 80 times for Barcelona's B team so has a lot of experience of senior football, even if he is very far away from challenging for Barcelona's first selection. The step up from Barcelona B to the full Barcelona team is bigger than before, after the second string were relegated last season. These days it's looking easier for players to go from Barcelona B to another club and then back to Barcelona if they want to get in the first team.
O Jogo say that Benfica have been interested in the Barcelona player for a while and wanted to sign him during the last window. Even though they failed, they plan to try again, perhaps as soon as the January transfer window.
Stoke City aren't mentioned but they could probably do with a young left back, challenging for the first team. Stoke have a record of bringing over Barcelona youngsters in recent years, with another attempt this summer for Adama Traore, who instead ended up at Aston Villa.
Stoke already have Marc Muniesa, Ibrahim Afellay and Bojan Krkić formerly of Barcelona. Manager Mark Hughes has used his Barcelona connections to talk about other players, both for loan and permanent deals. It would be no surprise if they were keeping an eye on Grimaldo's situation.
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