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#3 Philippe Coutinho
Costing a gargantuan €135m in principal fee, Philippe Coutinho became the most expensive transfer in Barcelona's history in 2018. The Brazilian playmaker proved to be a wanted man in Catalonia due to his eye-catching displays at Anfield. Donning the elusive number 10 on his back for the Reds, Coutinho's gleaming dribbling skills, coupled with his superior creativity, made him the perfect player for Barcelona to poach.
Aware of their interest, the 63-capped Brazil international submitted an official transfer request to the club. Liverpool's owners, the Fenway Sports Group, had fended off previous bids from potential suitors. They made their desire to withhold Coutinho even more apparent by rejecting his transfer plea. Jurgen Klopp backed the decision as he publicly stated his intentions to keep hold of the innovative creator.
Coutinho went on to make 14 more league appearances for the Reds before staging a second revolt in the winter transfer window of the 2017-18 season. He ruled himself out in January 2018, citing sudden fitness issues. A few days later, Coutinho's wish to depart for Barcelona was finally granted by the Liverpool hierarchy, as they accepted a €135m bid from the Blaugrana.
#2 Ousmane Dembele
The transfer that kicked off a series of ill-advised financial decisions, Barcelona's acquisition of Ousmane Dembele, was completed shortly after the sale of Neymar in 2017. The Catalan giants reinvested €105m of the €222m they had received in order to sign the promising but unproven prodigy of Borussia Dortmund.
Having signed Dembele as a 19-year-old, Dortmund made an instant profit of €100m by selling him to Barcelona after a solitary season. In his only year as a BVB player, Dembele produced an impressive 32 goal involvements in just 50 games, turning heads of every top club in Europe.
Following Neymar's controversial move to PSG, Barcelona spent no time diving into the transfer market looking for a replacement. Sensing the opportunity of a lifetime, Dembele refused to attend training in an attempt to force a move through. He later admitted to having no regrets in employing such a methodology to fulfill his desire, stating,
"I knew I had to have patience. I decided to stop going training. I didn't want to go. I looked for an excuse not to go. If it didn't work out and I hadn't done my part to get the move to Barca, now I would be lamenting the fact I wasn't here."
Four years since the inflated transfer, Dembele has failed to settle into the Catalans' first-team. He is currently out until October with a hamstring injury, the 12th of his Barcelona career.
#1 Cesc Fabregas
A Barcelona player in all the technical aspects of the game, Cesc Fabregas received his footballing education from the fabled institution of La Masia. Before he could make a name for himself in the senior squad, Arsenal recognized his potential at the age of 16 and quickly snapped him up. The Spaniard went on to have a fruitful career with the Gunners, breaking numerous records en route to becoming Arsenal's second-youngest captain ever.
However, rumors connecting him with a potential return to Camp Nou were ever-present during his eight-year association with the London club. Fabregas to Barcelona remains one of the longest-drawn transfer sagas in recent history, spanning multiple transfer windows.
Following Spain's victory in the 2010 World Cup, the Catalan members of the squad went as far as forcing a Barcelona shirt onto the creative playmaker.
The story picked up considerable heat in 2011 when Fabregas refused to participate in Arsenal's pre-season tour of that season. Having skipped the first match of the 2011-12 campaign, it was announced that the Gunners had accepted a €34m bid for the transfer of their captain to Barcelona. Thus concluded one of the most prolonged transfer sagas of our generation, with Fabregas forcing a move to his boyhood club.
Also read: Ranking the 10 worst Barcelona transfers in the last decade
