Barcelona’s sporting director Robert Fernandez admits their pursuit of Philippe Coutinho is ‘difficult’.
Liverpool are anticipating a third approach from the Catalan giants after rebuffing £72 million and £90.2m offers for the playmaker this summer.
The Anfield hierarchy remain unwilling to part with Coutinho, who signed a new five-year deal in January, despite interest intensifying from Spain.
Barca’s general manager Pep Segura had hinted that deals for both the Brazilian and Borussia Dortmund forward Ousmane Dembele were imminent.
But Fernandez concedes that his club face a greater challenge in convincing both clubs to part with their talismans due to an absence of release clauses.
He said: “Not just Barca but any team looking for top quality players are getting involved in a very difficult situation in this market.
“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.”