Barcelona failed in an attempt to sign Thiago at the ‘last minute’, according to reports. Liverpool signed the player instead, of course.
Fabrizio Romano revealed this in the Guardian on Sunday. He labels Liverpool signing Thiago for £20m as the ‘deal of the year’ but claims that they had to see of last-minute interest from Barcelona.
He doesn’t go into much detail but says that talks with Jurgen Klopp ‘convinced and enthralled’ Thiago, much more than Barcelona could.
In all, this comes across as a true show of power from Liverpool.
What RTK has to say
We can’t really speak highly enough of this. It is inconceivable that this could have happened three years ago, for instance. Back then, Liverpool struggled just to keep Philippe Coutinho at the club once Barcelona moved for him.
Yes, they secured a wonderful deal for him, but the Catalonians still put them in a position where they had to sell. Much like Luis Suarez and Javier Mascherano before him.
And Thiago isn’t just an ordinary player here – he’s a Barcelona youth-product. He has an attachment to that club and it would have been very easy to go back there. Especially at a time where Barca are looking to rebuild.
They could easily have offered him a dream position at his boyhood team. So for Liverpool to overcome that and still sign the player – seemingly in a pretty straightforward manner – is a magnificent reflection of the recent power balance.
Liverpool are on top of the world and Barcelona can no longer bully them.
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