Director Reveals the Main Difficulty Barcelona Face in Coutinho & Dembele Pursuits

Barcelona director Robert Fernandez has explained that some of the difficulty in signing top targets Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele from Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund respectively lies in the fact that neither player has a release clause that can be triggered.

It means that Barça, while hopeful of completing deals, accept that the future of both players will be determined by their current clubs.

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Liverpool in particular are keen not to sell Coutinho, while Dortmund are thought to be seeking an enormous financial package if they are to sanction the exit of Dembele.

"The market is where clubs like us want to sign top quality players. There's no buy-out clauses so that makes things trickier," Fernandez is quoted as saying by the Liverpool Echo as he attempted to explain why Barça have yet to make a breakthrough with either player.

"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," he added.

"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.

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"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. It is [Liverpool and Dortmund] who will have the final say on if we finally achieve those two transfers."

Earlier this week, Barcelona general manager, Pep Segura, claimed that deals for both Coutinho and Dembele are "very close" to joining the club.