Barcelona need to act fast, as the summer transfer window is coming to a close and they’ve yet to make a marquee signing or even replace Neymar.
It’s no secret that the Blaugrana have picked out two top targets in Borussia Dortmund’s Ousmane Dembele and Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho.
TARGETS
The advantage they have is that Paris Saint-Germain paid €222 million for Neymar, and they’ve only used around €40 million of that so far on Paulinho – so they have plenty of money to spend.
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The disadvantage, though, is that neither clubs are making it easy to let go of their prized assets, especially the Anfield side who are reportedly bracing themselves for a fourth bid from the Catalan giants, thought to be around £136 million.
Both clubs have felt that the Spanish side have forced their players into forcing through a move, as it saw the Brazil international officially hand in a transfer request while Dembele decided not to turn up to training and has since been suspended for his actions.
With Barcelona reportedly pulling a u-turn on signing Nice’s Jean Michael Seri, it’s thought that the Camp Nou outfit will shift their full focus onto securing deals for Coutinho or Dembele, but Barca feel that there’s somebody sabotaging their pursuit of the 20-year-old French winger.
According to Mundo Deportivo, Barca suspect that Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp and the club are interfering in the negotiations for Dembele, with the German boss supposedly taking advantage of the contacts he still has at Dortmund – the club he coached before making a switch to the Premier League.
SABOTAGE
The source has added that Klopp has first-hand information about what the Spanish side has to offer for Dembele, and continues to receive regular updates on his future as he maintains good relations with CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke and technical secretary Michael Zorc.
If Klopp does regularly get that information, then it means they might have a firm price in their minds which they could potentially accept for Coutinho, but it could be too late to find a potential replacement this late in the window even if they return with an offer they would want to accept.
Even with the speculated contact, Coutinho might have to become a plan b for Barca as it was claimed last week that the Bundesliga club had given Ernesto Valverde’s side a deadline of August 27 to come to an agreement for Dembele.
If they miss that deadline, then they won’t be negotiating again this summer and the former Rennes star will return to Dortmund.
What do you make of the claims that Jurgen Klopp is in contact with Borussia Dortmund over Ousmane Dembele’s developments? Have YOUR say in the comments section below.
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