Spanish football expert Guillem Balague has rubbished suggestions John W. Henry was in Barcelona over the weekend to discuss a potential summer deal for Ivan Rakitic.
Our owner sat in the Barcelona’s president’s box and fans were animated on Twitter as to the potential reasons behind his visit…
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But whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t a scouting mission!
“Do you really believe that the owner of Liverpool, especially given the way they are structured, is going to go to the Camp Nou just to spy or scout on a player?,” Balague told Sky Sports.
“I think it is important to know how clubs work and that is definitely not the way that Liverpool work.”
In fairness, those who believed that have very little understanding of how we work in the transfer market. Henry, an American whose first sport is baseball, shells out millions of pounds to employ knowledgeable scouts and data analysts, and would not – in a million years – be personally checking out a player for the benefit of Jurgen Klopp!
Most likely, Henry was there as a guest, discussing commercial possibilities and football business. Barcelona are interested in developing some kind of corporate stand, for example – which Henry knows plenty about…
On Rakitic, the Croat is enduring a poor season and seems to be in decline. We’d still take him in a heartbeat, but don’t imagine he’s the kind of player Klopp would be targeting.