Barcelona's saga of selling players continues. This time, Miralem Pjanic got an offer from Sharjah FC in UAE Pro League on a three-year contract. It's up to Miralem if he accepts or not. A bit weird to see Barcelona want to sell Miralem since I always thought he would be a sub for Sergio Busquets in midfield since he is quite old. Tho moving down from La Liga to UAE Pro League seems okay for Miralem too as he also isn't young anymore.
Why do you call it "weird"? Both Busquets (34) and Pjanic (32) are old players, so Pjanic isn't the right option to replace Busquets.
I think it is the right decision to sell Miralem Pjanic because Barcelona has Franck Kessié (25) and Frenkie de Jong (25) who have the same position. Franck Kessié and Frenkie de Jong more deserve to be the sub of Sergio Busquets or play together with him in the midfield. However, Barcelona only has Busquets as a pure defensive midfielder. Although they have Franck Kessié and Frenkie de Jong that can play at that position as well, I am sure they may plan to look for a new pure defensive midfielder in the next transfer window. Except, Franck Kessié or Frenkie de Jong can perform impressively as a pure midfielder.
Pjanic-Arthur deal was actually a move to settle the books for Barcelona, Barcelona even under Koeman weren't per se interested in Pjanic as he doesn't play doesn't seem to fit into the system, He's already surplus to requirements so there's literally no point in having him around and allocating some extra budget to cover his wages.
I don't think Barcelona will be looking for a pure defensive midfielder in January, in case of any rotation De Jong or Kessie will likely cover for Busquests until the end of the season, the club had enough difficulties trying to register every player they obtained in the summer window.
secondly, if Barcelona can sell this player, they will be able to get a good amount of money, obviously going down from playing in the La Liga to playing in the UAE is going to be a major downgrade for the player, but i don’t think Pjanić should mind at this moment because i believe that he is looking for a good retirement plan right now, and going to UAE where the competition is not big and the money is good seems to be a good retirement plan for any player