They say you should never sell your best players and that’s because no matter how much money you get for them, it’s irrelevant as you won’t be able to attract a replacement who is anywhere near as good.

To pluck a random extreme example from the air, when West Ham sold Rio Ferdinand for £18m in 2001, the “ideal” replacement would have been Sol Campbell but instead they signed Christian Dailly, Rigobert Song, Hayden Foxe, Titi Camara, Ragnvald Soma and Svetoslav Todorov. Because, obviously, Sol Campbell didn’t want to join them.

And there are many such examples littered across football history’s big-money sales (although, admittedly, possibly none quite as horrendous as that one).

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But selling (one of) your best players when you’re Barcelona is slightly different. Because when you’re Barcelona, you can attract pretty much any footballer in the world. And it appears the Catalan giants are already making plans to turn Neymar’s £198m departure to Paris Saint-Germain into a squad-improving event.

Barca target number one is a chap whose teenage precociousness is reminiscent of Neymar himself. It’s Kylian Mbappe, of course.

The Mail (via L’Equipe) reports that the Monaco starlet has decided to leave the French champions, and that his representatives have “already met” with Nou Camp chiefs. A significant added attraction to signing the 18-year-old is that it would completely balls up Real Madrid’s transfer plans.

Financial Fair Play?

L’Equipe says the two La Liga heavyweights are involved in a straight shoot-out to sign Mbappe, although his ever-increasing price tag (£178m at the last count) may be more palatable to a side that just sold someone for £198m.

Barcelona’s other targets are pretty good at football too. The Sun says they will use their Neymar windfall to swoop for Premier League duo Philippe Coutinho and Eden Hazard. A move for the Liverpool man is already under way, while Chelsea star Hazard would hold the same added bonus that he is also wanted by Real Madrid.

In fact, Barcelona could have so much fun with £198m that might even be hoping Neymar leaves. Because he might not.

Sport says the Spanish league will “not allow Neymar’s release clause to be deposited” due to their concerns about Financial Fair Play, while the Telegraph says Uefa will “demand” that PSG explain how they are funding the transfer.

Meanwhile, ever-eager Arsenal have nipped in to make a bid for one of Barca’s other forward targets, Ousmane Dembele of Borussia Dortmund, says Mundo Deportivo. Sadly, the bid was rejected (and quite possibly prompted some laughing).

Elsewhere, Manchester United’s Anthony Martial has agreed a loan switch to Inter Milan, thereby smoothing the path for Ivan Perisic to move to Old Trafford (Mirror), Chelsea are prepared to keep unsettled Diego Costa at Stamford Bridge until Atletico Madrid get close to meeting the striker’s £50m valuation (Star) and Tottenham are finally set to make their first signing of the summer by bringing Southampton’s back-up goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga to north London for £2m (Sun). Good old Mauricio Pochettino – you just knew he had something MASSIVE up his sleeve all along.

@darlingkevin