Barcelona might be one of the biggest clubs in the world but sometimes they just don’t act like it.

The Spanish giants dominated European football under Pep Guardiola with Lionel Messi breaking records left, right and centre as the spearhead of a simply remarkable team.

Since then, however, the club has been in steady decline and now they look a shadow of that mighty winning machine Guardiola so lovingly sculpted.

After a string of embarrassing Champions League knockouts and now struggling to keep pace in La Liga, something has to change at Barca.

Normally, the strategy would be to go and drop the GDP of a small developing nation on buying a new superstar but they may just be looking into a different tactic this time around.

That is because news has emerged today, per the Daily Mail, that the Catalan club are interested in Arsenal defender, Shkodran Mustafi.

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Yes, you read that right.

The Gunners fringe player is actually garnering covetous looks from the powers-that-be at Barcelona.

This comes only days after rumours began to circulate that the Spanish club were weighing up a move for Hector Bellerin.

In isolation, this looks like a bonkers move, but bizarrely purchasing rather obscure players has become a bit of a trend for Barca of late.

Who can forget the infamous Thomas Vermaelen signing? Or former Middlesborough man Martin Braithwaite’s peculiar switch to the Camp Nou?

If Mustafi’s agent is to be believed and Barca are interested, it’s just another indicator of how truly wild their recruitment process has become.

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At best, Mustafi is a fringe player at Arsenal - a club embroiled in their worst season in an age.

He did little to change anyone’s minds with his performance against Manchester City on Tuesday night as the hapless Gunners shipped four simple goals.

Sometimes you do have to wonder what is going through the minds of the big-wigs at Barcelona but hey, perhaps they know something we don’t.

With Gerard Pique sidelined by a long-term injury, the Spanish side are in the market for a defender but surely Mustafi is not the answer.

There must be a reason they are looking into signing the ageing German but we can’t, for the life of us, think what it might be.