PSG look to hijack Barcelona target

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Bengaluru, August 25: Barcelona target Jean Michael Seri's agent Franklin Mala claims that French giants Paris Saint-Germain want to sign the Nice midfielder to "s***" Barca".

Seri has been heavily linked with a €40million transfer to Barcelona, though a deal is yet to be finalized for the 26-year-old, who previously denied claims that he had agreed terms with the La Liga side.

And the uncertainty has seemingly opened the door for Ligue 1 rivals PSG who have already upset Barcelona this summer by prising Neymar away from Barca in a world-record €222million transfer earlier in August, according to Mala.

"It was possible to reach an agreement as Barcelona and Nice were negotiating," he told RAC1.

"On Tuesday, they were in France, talking about technical aspects but they already knew Seri's capabilities.

"PSG came three days ago. Now PSG is putting pressure on the club to take the player, it's crazy. They just want to do it to f*** Barca."

The relationship between PSG and Barcelona is in bad terms at the moment after what happened this summer. It all started after PSG's reluctance to do business with Barcelona for Marco Verratti and then the French capital club triggered Neymar's release clause which eventually saw the Brazilian move to Parc des Princes.

It is understood that while Seri's agreement with Nice allowed him to join a club outside France for €40million, that did not apply for any domestic move and PSG therefore decided to offer substantially more.

In response, Nice informed Barcelona that their asking price had now increased to €50m, causing them to withdraw their interest on Wednesday (August 23).

With just a week to go until the transfer window closes, Ernesto Valverde's side have so far only invested €40million of the funds they received for Neymar to purchase Brazil midfielder Paulinho.

A fourth bid for Liverpool's Philippe Coutinho is yet to materialise but it looks like Liverpool will not do business at any price, while reports in France have linked the Blaugrana with both PSG's Ángel Di María and Willian of Chelsea.