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From Anfield to Montjuïc, Barcelona's unattainable wish for next season

The Liverpool duo, Jürgen Klopp and Mohamed Salah, are admired and wanted at Barcelona.

By Emmanuel Mendez

The Liverpool duo, Jürgen Klopp and Mohamed Salah, are admired and wanted at Barcelona.
The Liverpool duo, Jürgen Klopp and Mohamed Salah, are admired and wanted at Barcelona.
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The landscape of soccer has changed significantly over the course of the past few years. While the Premier League's spending was curbed by newly-enforced PSR/FFP regulations in the last transfer window, that might not last for long. Even if it does, the English top flight is still economically far superior to any other league around the world. Liverpool benefits from that in the sense of being in the right position to pick up high levels of revenue, but also has to contend with far greater competition to win the domestic title, as Arsenal and Manchester City are proving this season.

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The gulf between the Premier League and the rest has come mainly because of the investment in England being far bigger than the rest. But some clubs have also been mismanaged elsewhere, falling further behind than they needed to. Barcelona is a case in point. Over the last few years, Barcelona has swapped places with Liverpool. Only in 2018 did Philippe Coutinho deem a $179m move to Camp Nou as the dream destination for his career, but six years on, that no longer feels like a genuine threat. In truth, it would be a bizarre move for any top Liverpool player to want to go there rather than stay put, even such a short period of time later.

Only a couple of years back, links with Barcelona wanting to take Mohamed Salah away from Liverpool would have been met with concern from Reds fans. Now, though, they seem laughable. If anyone can afford to sign the Egyptian, it won't be the Catalans. Spanish outlet Mundo Deportivo has reported as such this week. They say that Salah is the dream target for Barcelona ahead of the summer, but there is an acceptance that he will not be a plausible target. He would simply cost far too much.

Barcelona knows that Klopp is only leaving Liverpool because he wants a break as he publicly explained to Liverpool fans when the shock announcement that he was leaving Anfield came out and nothing will change that. Perhaps in the future, Barcelona could become an option for Klopp, but not right now. It simply doesn't have anywhere near enough appeal these days to make that possible.

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A new model

As it has in the past, Barcelona will point to the Premier League's increased dominance economically as a reason for its own decline, but the reality is different. The reason that Salah and Klopp won't follow Coutinho in considering leaving Anfield for Camp Nou is very much of its own making: as Liverpool has flown up the European pecking order in recent seasons, Barcelona has dropped off to the same extent.


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