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Barcelona sporting director Robert Fernandez admits his club faces an uphill battle to sign Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho because he doesn’t have a release clause.

The Reds are braced for a third bid for the Brazil international having already rejected offers of £72million and £90million from the La Liga outfit.

However, Liverpool remain adamant that Coutinho, who submitted a transfer request last week, doesn’t have a price this summer and will stay at Anfield.

Barcelona general manager Pep Segura had been quoted as saying a deal was “close” but Fernandez was less optimistic as he spoke about a “very difficult situation”.

Barca, who completed the signing of Paulinho on Thursday, want to spend their £200million windfall from the sale of Neymar on deals for Coutinho and Borussia Dortmund’s Ousmane Dembele.

“Not just Barca but any team looking for top quality players are getting involved in a very difficult situation in this market,” Fernandez said.

“Why? Because the market is where clubs like us want to sign top quality players. There’s no buy-out clauses so that makes things trickier.

“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.

“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.

“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.

“We still have days ahead of us, would like to move things faster, but do admit they’re two players we would like here. But it’s the clubs who will have the final say on if we finally achieve those two transfers.”

Barcelona’s need for attacking reinforcements has been heightened by a knee injury to Luis Suarez in the Super Cup defeat to Real Madrid. The former Reds striker will be sidelined for four to five weeks.