Coutinho and Di Maria to follow

Club wants to sign both

Posted Saturday, August 26, 2017 by Marca.com

Barcelona have taken an important step with the hiring of Ousmane Dembele, but they want more.

The Frenchman had become their priority transfer because he was a request of the sporting director and because the club were always able to negotiate with Borussia Dortmund.

The German club did not make things easy, but unlike others, at least they sat at a table to discuss the operation.

Now the Catalans enter the last week of the transfer market with the need for at least one more signing.

Philippe Coutinho and Angel Di Maria are in the club's sights and the arrival of one would not exclude the other, as previously believed.

Indeed, the sporting director will try to bring both two players in but the task is very complicated for several reasons.

Firstly, because both Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool are reluctant to negotiate.

In the last hours, however, the Reds have opened a door and are not as inflexible as they have been shown to be over the summer.

Not to mention that the player keeps pushing to leave.

According to the latest information from England, Coutinho has asked the club not to be included in their Champions League list.

Barcelona are optimistic, but also aware that the operation will surely exceed the 105 million that they paid for Dembele.

In the next few hours, they will try a new approach with Liverpool.

The other route that remains fully open is that of Di Maria and his capture does not depend on whether or not the Catalans eventually procure Coutinho.

A few days ago PSG said they were not willing to negotiate for the Argentinian but Barcelona will again return in the coming days with new tactics.

What will be decisive is the arrival of Mbappe to the French club.

If the Parisians sign him, they will need to sell and Barcelona will then push harder for Di Maria.

The other big problem is the economic one.

At present, 187 million euros have already been spent on four new signings and there's approximately 100m left over if we take into account Neymar and Tello's revenues and add in the 60m that the club initially intended for reinforcements.

POSSIBLE DEPARTURES

Coutinho would eat up that 100m, so it would be necessary to finance Di Maria by selling several players.

One of them is Andre Gomes.

At the beginning of summer, Barcelona received an offer for the player of 45m euros and if they can get that amount now, a similar price to Di Maria, the Blaugrana will get their man.

Jorge Mendes is looking for a possible buyer for Gomes, but one hasn't appeared as yet.

Rafinha is another, but the problem is the physical condition of the player who hasn't well recovered from his knee problems.

With Turan they don't expect much money.