When Marcus McGuane left Arsenal for Barcelona in January, the Catalans reportedly gave the then 18-year-old a considerable £21.9m buyout clause.

According to the Daily Mail, who recently met up with McGuane, Barca’s head of youth football Jose Mari Bakero, and scout Bojan Krkic Snr, to conduct interviews over the 19-year-old’s progress since his move to Spain, the Catalan giants have included a £21.9m buyout clause in the teenager’s three-year contract.

mcguane fabregas
via Twitter

Arsenal fans were gutted when McGuane chose to leave his boyhood club and sign for Barca during the January transfer window.

The promising defensive midfielder had only made two appearances for the first team and that was in the Europa League. These two appearances totaled just 12 minutes. However, he impressed for the reserves, scoring two goals in nine Premier League 2 appearances this season.

At the age of almost-19, the England youth international wanted more and Barcelona were willing to offer it.

“I was getting frustrated by a lack of opportunities [at Arsenal],” he told the Mail. “It is good to train but I did not want my performance to plateau and stay at the same level. This step made sense.”

McGuane became the first Englishman since Gary Lineker (1989) to sign for the La Liga club. And on Wednesday he came on as a substitute in the first team’s Supercopa de Catalunya final clash against Espanyol, which Barca won 4-2 on penalties.

He’s also made two starts (four appearances) for Barcelona B already.

https://twitter.com/marcusmcguane58/status/971740793101783040

For a youngster that had his picture taken underneath Cesc Fabregas’ shirt in the Arsenal dressing room when he was a kid, McGuane must be on cloud nine right now.

It’s just a shame he couldn’t experience this success at Arsenal.