Liverpool and Barcelona refuse to rule out rare SWAP deal

Liverpool and Barcelona have their minds set on an ambitious swap deal. They're rare but this one might just happen.

Liverpool will be looking for the 'right' deals in the upcoming summer transfer window. They have a lot of business to get through, after all, and must go about things in an efficient way.

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That sounds incredibly dull, of course, but it's just the way things have to go. Liverpool may need to rebuild a title-winning squad and that doesn't come cheap.

Virgil van Dijk, Mo Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold may all leave on free transfers. Ibrahima Konate is about to enter the final year of his own contract and may leave for a reduced price.

It's the same with Caoimhin Kelleher, while Liverpool will try to find a new no.9 to lead the line. Again, those don't come cheap and we could be looking at £100m.

Thus the Reds have got to save money where they can. Maybe that's by finding free transfers of their own.

And maybe it's by striking a very rare kind of transfer: a swap deal.

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Liverpool and Barcelona consider swap deal

Relovo reports that Liverpool and Barcelona aren't ruling out a swap deal this summer. We'll immediately start with this: it's not likely to happen.

Still, it's notable that the two teams aren't writing off such a move. Luis Diaz and Ronald Araujo are the players in question - a pair who have been courted for some time by each club.

Barcelona are in the market for a new winger this summer, while Liverpool are forced to search for a centre-back as both Van Dijk and Konate face uncertain futures. It's a match made in heaven, clearly.

However, Araujo may prefer to remain with Barcelona, while Diaz will almost certainly have offers from Saudi Arabia. There are a lot of moving parts here, in other words, before things find any certainty.

It's also worth adding that a 'swap deal' in this context doesn't usually mean a direct swap. Instead, you see each player sign for the other club at the same transfer fee - that helps for accounting purposes.

So yes, a long way to go but it's not impossible that the two could switch clubs this summer. Araujo, certainly, would be a fantastic addition to Liverpool's squad and solves the centre-back problem almost instantly.

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One to keep an eye on, then, even if we think it's unlikely.