Lucas Silva and Cruzeiro pushed for Barça move... but Barça said no

Barcelona turned down the option to sign Real Madrid's new midfielder Lucas Silva on more than one occasion, even though Cruzeiro and the player were both pushing for a move to Camp Nou. 

"Lucas Silva is too bland to play as a midfielder in Europe. Defensively he doesn't compare to Sergio Busquets and further up he doesn't have the quality of Xavi, [Andres] Iniesta or [Ivan] Rakitic. He's not a player for Barça."

These are the words of one of Barça's scouts who watched the Brazilian play for Cruzeiro. However, Madrid must have thought differently as they are now receiving him as if he is a technical wonder, despite the fact he's not yet made his Brazil debut. 

Barça had Florentino Perez's most recent signing under complete control. Not only had they watched the player, but before Christmas Cruzeiro asked for an audience with the Catalan club: In the meeting, the Brazilian side formally offered the midfield player.

With the aim of establishing a good relationship with Barça, the Cruziero director of football, Alexandro Mattos, tried to push Lucas Silva in their direction. It was the logical move, considering the relationships between Barcelona and the main clubs in Brazil. 

Perez is viewed differently in the South American country. Santos's ex-president, Luis Álvaro de Oliveira, famously said he has a "colonial" attitude which involves waving around massive checks. 

And in the end Madrid have ended up paying €15million -- what a surprise! -- which is €5m more than the price he was offered to Barcelona for. The Blaugrana knew all about Madrid's interest and how the deal was progressing. 

If Barça did want to sign the player, FIFA would have prevented any deal being struck until January 2016. However, with that being one month after the Brazilian season, that was not a problem for Cruzeiro or for the player. What is clear is that Lucas Silva wanted to sign for Barça. 

Staying in Belo Horizonte for another year had its incentives for a player who doesn't turn 22 until next month and is still developing. Cruzeiro have some important challenges ahead of them this year: to try to win the Copa Libertadores for the first time since 1997 and to become the second club in the modern era to win three successive Brasileiraos, following in the footsteps of Muricy Ramalho's Sao Paulo (2006-2008). 

Barça know that Lucas Silva is a "good kid", but in terms of his football ability they were not interested. They have had him watched exhaustively in the the Brasileirao and last June observed him at an U20 tournament in Toulon. 

Whether Barcelona's view was right, time will tell, but there was no interest from any of Europe's big clubs other than Real Madrid.

What's more, when the deal was closed between the three parties -- Cruzeiro, Madrid and Lucas -- the Brazilian club and the player's agent tried to do a deal with Barça one last time.