Barcelona’s transfer planning over the past couple of years has been somewhat abstract, or as many fans of the Catalan club would say: An absolute mess.
Strange signings, strange sales, and still no clear idea what’s going on. If there is a plan it seems to have been assembled very strangely.
The club’s technical secretary Robert Fernandez still seems to live a charmed life and walks around with an impressive smugness.
So, given the lack of any actual plan, the idea of simply annoying Liverpool could be taken up and ran with.
On Tuesday, Catalan newspaper Mundo Deportivo claim two things which could be slotted into the ‘annoy Liverpool’ category.
Barcelona won’t give up on Coutinho, explain Mundo Deportivo, although the situation is ‘very complicated’.
In the case of a ‘debacle’ seeing Liverpool fail to qualify, it’s pointed out the club will have officials in Monaco anyway for the Europa League draw.
A few pages later, the Catalan newspaper have a ‘top secret’ section and say Barcelona are now keen on both Naby Keita and Leon Goretzka.
Robert Fernandez, as part of his 
regular tours around Europe, watched Schalke beat RB Leipzig at the weekend, and both players are on the Barcelona agenda.
Both are also described as Liverpool targets, something Mundo Deportivo seem keen to point out. It’s also pointed out that should signing Coutinho from Liverpool prove ‘impossible’, then Keita could be more of a target.
Yes, yes, they’re not similar at all… but then that would be expecting Barcelona to have a plan, other than wanting to annoy Liverpool.
