Was It A Big Mistake?
The Barcelona transfer window may not have gone according to plan. After having received a humongous amount of fees for Brazilian starlet Neymar, the Catalonian club had a choice to pick whoever they wanted to fill the void left by their marksman winger. With £198m in their pockets, Barcelona could afford any superstar in football they wanted. They could have also purchased more than one player with that record-breaking fee, it smashed the old world record for a transfer by over a double the amount.
There were a number of names that came to mind for the La Liga giants; Eden Hazard, Philippe Coutinho, Ousmane Dembele, Paulo Dybala etc to replace Neymar. But after the transfer window came to a close, Barcelona found themselves in a rather awkward situation.
But the prime target on the list was Neymar’s international compatriot, Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho.
In a strange series of events, Juventus star Paulo Dybala wanted a move away from Turin after Neymar left Barcelona, hoping that he would be given the limelight for the 5 time European Champions. But reports claimed that Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu did not want the Argentine forward at Camp Nou.
Having signed a new deal with Juve in April this year, Dybala got himself the No.10 jersey. He helped Juventus in winning back to back Serie A titles since his arrival in 2015 and seemed happy at the club until Juventus decided to offer him to Barcelona.
Plenty of sources covered these rumors. And Juventus were probably looking to get a big amount of transfer fees for their 23-year-old star attacker. It was reported that Juve had made two bids to offer Dybala to Barcelona the Barca board declined any offers as they were ready to go all in for Coutinho.
Dybala would be a fantastic edition to almost any club, But Barcelona just wanted the Liverpool play-maker, who has been outstanding over the past few seasons for Jurgen Klopp’s side.
The 25-year-old midfielder had been targeted by the Barcelona board three times during the summer transfer window, but Klopp was adamant that his marquee player was not for sale this summer. Even a late bid for £138m was reportedly rejected by the Merseyside club.
In the end, Barcelona settled for Borussia Dortmund winger Ousmane Dembele. The 20-year-old has become the most expensive transfer the club has made.
The main reason why Barcelona rejected Juve’s offer for Dybala was that the club felt that he would not be able to partner up well with Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez. Which is why they felt Coutinho would better suit the other players at the club.
Back To Training-
It has now been further confirmed that the Brazilian international has returned to training at Anfield and will be part of the Kops’ side for the upcoming matches. With the whole transfer saga dying down, things are now slowly getting back to normal and there will be a lot of expectations from the Merseyside outfit this term, after the positive start that they have made and Beyond The Posts will surely report any stories related to them.
