Rakitic to stay at Barca
The final few hours of the transfer window also saw deals fall through. Ivan Raktic, offered in exchange for Neymar, will not leave the Camp Nou this summer in the end.
In August 2018, PSG weighed up the signing of Ivan Rakitic until the last day of the transfer market, but the Croat was tricked by Ernesto Valverde and decided not to force a transfer which would have financially benefitted him a great deal.
As fate had it, one year later, it was Barcelona who tried to force him to leave the club for the Parc des Princes. Desperate to get back Neymar, the Catalan club offer loads of Barca players to the Parisians including the World Cup runner-up.
However, Rakitic refused to be swapped with the Brazilian and reopened the possibility of going to Juventus. That was good enough financially for Barca, but it completely ruined their plans of signing Neymar.
As they were in no hurry to cash in, Barcelona closed the doors to the midfielder. Nevertheless, 'Jugones' reported that the Croat had stuck with his idea of signing for Juventus until this very Monday. A move which the Barca board are not allowing him to make.
Aside from that, Zlatko Dalic confirmed Rakitic will be missing from the Croatia team. "He has not yet sorted out his future at his club and we have concluded that he is not prepared or focussed to give everything I need him to give at this moment in time. Therefore, he is not coming."
The midfielder went being an indisputable starter for Ernesto Valverde last season (he started 54 matches) to playing in just one of the three games played so far this season. Even in that game he started on the bench. Despite Barcelona's bad results, Valverde has hardly used him so far this season.