Arsenal, Liverpool or Man Utd? Barella's surprise ideal next club revealed

Tom Weber

• Updated: 21 Dec 2023 15:51 GMT
• 4 min read

Serie A might be too easy for Nicolo Barella.

It is perhaps a blasphemous suggestion given that Inter reached the Champions League final last term - and ran Man City close - but Barella may have outgrown his club at this point. The 26-year-old midfielder is head and shoulders above his peers in the league and it might be time for him to take the next step in his career after already being heavily linked with a Premier League move in the summer.

Barella has been officially recognised on two occasions as Serie A's best midfielder, scooping the award in 2020/21 and last season and the data backs that up. According to SciSports, Barella is, by quite some distance, the best midfield performer in Serie A this term, scoring well both offensively as well as defensively.

The Inter star won't come cheap, of course. FootballTransfers' in-house Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) algorithm puts his worth at a whopping €53 million. But splashing the cash on the Italian is a risk worth taking for the Premier League's elite - yet his best-suited club doesn't even play in England.

Barella's perfect next club

Using SciSports' Career Advice tool, we can get an idea of where the midfielder would fit like a glove. Given his ability, the Italian would, unsurprisingly, be considered a key player at pretty much every big team, regardless of whether they play in the Premier League or elsewhere.

His best option in England is Arsenal. SciSports analyse hundreds of data points and criteria to calculate a Club Fit rating and the Gunners clock in at a very high 85, just ahead of rivals Man City and Man Utd. Liverpool and Chelsea score in the 70s and would therefore also be good options, though not quite as good as the others.

Interestingly, however, Arsenal are not his ideal next club, despite the high rating. That distinction belongs to Bayern Munich, who boast a very impressive score of 92. This is likely due to the fact that the German giants' midfield has, at this point, really no standout star player anymore.

The performance levels of Leon Goretzka and Joshua Kimmich have dropped off massively in recent times, while the likes of Raphael Guerreiro and Konrad Leimer are not necessarily out-and-out central midfielders. Barella would turn up at the Allianz Arena and instantly make that position his own.