Barcelona, for all its lavish spending and its colossal-risk economic levers, won La Liga last season. After spending money that it quite literally didn’t have, Xavi got the Spanish giant heading back in the right direction.
After a draw with Rayo Vallecano on Saturday, Barcelona is now fourth in the table, three points behind Girona having played a game more. Things are not going quite as smoothly as would be ideal given the extent of the gamble taken — which will only work if there is a period of sustained success.
One of the players that Barcelona is putting its faith in, having spent $71m (£56m/€65m) to sign him from Leeds United, is Raphinha. Also one of the forwards put into the equation for one day being a Mohamed Salah successor, there is a chance he could soon be available.
Xavi played Raphinha a lot last season. He was a key player for Barcelona, contributing 14 goals and assists in 25 league appearances en route to winning the title, but things have since changed. Needing funds to sign João Félix and João Cancelo, Football Insider reports that the 26-year-old is up for sale. He has only made three league starts so far this year and was sent off in one of them.
Liverpool, Spurs and Newcastle are said to be possible options for the left-footed right winger should he end up leaving, with a price tag of $50m (£40m/€46m) suggested. While that would be worth considering, there is a lot more that suggests the time has passed for the Reds to really be interested.
For one thing, turning 27 in a few weeks, Raphinha is probably at the wrong end of the age spectrum that Liverpool would usually target. More importantly, Liverpool categorically does not need a Salah successor yet.
When the time does come, Liverpool will need to find a left-footed successor to Salah, but that player will need to have a better goalscoring record than the Brazilian does. But even if Raphinha was the right profile, that time has not arrived.
Salah has been one of Liverpool’s most important players this season and he continues to prove that he is not ready to drop off from the top level. Even if he was to decline slightly, Salah would still be a better player than almost everyone else in his position all over the world.
Given Barcelona could do with selling and Liverpool has been linked with Raphinha before, you can expect the links to continue. But the chances of Jürgen Klopp being seriously interested these days are slim.
