For the first time in their pursuit of Liverpool play-maker Philippe Coutinho, Barcelona have admitted that they are unsure of they will be able to bring the player to the Camp Nou this summer. The club’s sporting director, Robert Fernandez, claims the Catalan giants face an uphill struggle to get their hands on the 25-year-old who handed in a transfer request at Anfield a week ago.
 

Having already had two bids rejected, Barca are plotting a third assault which is understood to be in the region of £118M but general manager Pep Segura echoes the sentiments of Fernandez by calling the whole thing a “difficult situation”.
 

The Liverpool Echo quotes Fernandez who went to explain that; “Not just Barca but any team looking for top quality players are getting involved in a very difficult situation in this market. Why? Because the market is where clubs like us want to sign top quality players. There’s no buy-out clauses so that makes things trickier.”
 

“Yes, we are negotiating with clubs to make several signings, but in all awareness of the difficulty. We need to work our way into a favourable situation and hopefully close these deals as quickly as possible. Dembele and Coutinho are two important players that we like a lot and have done for a long time. They have the conditions, the right age and could adapt to our football. They would be good to have here. That’s the reality.”
 

“With respect to Liverpool and Dortmund, when there are negotiations you need time, you need to work things into a favourable situation for players and ourselves. We still have days ahead of us, would like to move things faster, but do admit they’re two players we would like here. But it’s the clubs who will have the final say on if we finally achieve those two transfers.”