leave on a Bosman free transfer, finally accepted a £12 million bid for the player from Barcelona; Barcelona had previously tried (and failed) to sign McManaman twice before (after the 1996 FA Cup final and after Euro 96). The deal subsequently fell apart amidst recriminations about the player's remuneration demands and Barcelona's motives for the bid, being in negotiation with Brazilian superstar Rivaldo at the same time and snubbing McManaman when he travelled to Spain to meet them. At its height, the transfer saga was dubbed by the International Herald Tribune (later acquired by the New York Times) as one that ushered in a "new low in transfer trading tactics"; adding that McManaman was a pawn being "used" as the big clubs battled. By the end of the saga, Barcelona had signed Rivaldo after Sir Bobby Robson changed his mind (he had earlier told LFC vice-chairman Peter Robinson that he wanted the player) and intervened and told Louis van Gaal that he decided McManaman was "a cosmetic player who would not score 18 goals a season for Barcelona", while McManaman himself, albeit expressing that he was surprised Liverpool were willing to sell him in the first place, stated that he had no desire to leave Liverpool and with two years left on his contract was simply not in any rush to sign a new one. A subsequent bid of £11 million from Serie A club Juventus in November of the same year was rejected by both club and player. In early 1998, Barcelona returned with yet another bid for McManaman, and former Deportivo de La Coruña president Augusto César Lendoiro later added that Barcelona did not want to sign his former player Rivaldo and that they had (initially) wanted McManaman, and put it down to a "coincidence" that they pulled out and opted for Rivaldo instead, with it being notable that the fact Barcelona came back again in 1998 (after having already signed Rivaldo five months earlier) had stood as evidence of that point. Nonetheless, McManaman and Liverpool turned them down once and for all for the last time. McManaman had been named Liverpool stand-in captain at the start of the 1997–98 season, but contract negotiations continued to flounder as the club could not match the sums available to McManaman if he left as a free agent at the end of the following campaign. Having been overlooked by Glenn Hoddle