Many Barcelona fans will be happy to say the club isn’t exactly run very well, but those in charge at Barca are coated in such an amount of smugness that they rarely see any wrong being done.
With a current boost to finances, thanks to PSG paying Neymar’s buyout clause, Barcelona have a financial smugness to add to all the other tangents of smug.
This week the club detailed their wonderful financial situation, and as part of that Barcelona’s director general Oscar Grau told the Spanish media on Wednesday: “We are ready to sign Coutinho in January.”
It was a financial message. We can pay what Liverpool want.
Should a transfer have any possibility of happening in January, Liverpool will now have even more confidence of getting an unreasonable sum out of Barcelona.
After all, the 
Catalan club have assured their fans they can pay it.
Mundo Deportivo, very much a Barcelona friendly newspaper, call it ‘The sin of saying that there is money for Coutinho’ and ‘A slip that can cost dearly’.
It’s pointed out Barcelona had problems with Liverpool’s owners in the summer, and will now face an FSG who can use the claims as a negotiating tool.
Liverpool will be ‘rubbing their hands’, say Mundo Deportivo.
