Even if he comes free, I still don't want him. Potentially threatening our youngsters' playing time and taking up decent salary money. No.
Do we have any youngster of a slightly different profile than "a classical Barca's profile" though?
Our current midfielders aged 26 and younger are:
Coutinho
Rafinha
Denis
Arthur
Alena
Samper
** Puig
** Oriol
If we add De Jong, that's quite a lot of quite similar players.
Is there any aggressive player here?
At least one physical guy?
Anyone except Arthur with even hints of some muscles?
At least one workhorse?
Ar least one midfielder awesome in defending and covering a lot of space?
Any thugs here?
Should I even dare to mention some height?
I am not saying that Rabiot is the answer, but eventually we will need some younger players of a different profile than Coutinho, Denis, Alena, Puig, Oriol, Samper etc.
We will need some variety in midfield and a few different options.
7-8 clones won't help too much. (I know that they are not EXACTLY the same, but they aren't too different in their core skills, tbh)
The only "different" players whom we have are either 30+ or sold: Rakitic, Vidal, Paulinho, Gomes.