Any competent club would have gone about this very differently.
Basically, all big transfers start with off the record chats with agents. Buying club asks player agent if player wants the move, rough terms of deal agreed. Then agent approaches club and says i want you to sell to club x, rough terms agreed. All this done very quietly and in most cases someone says no or the terms are to far apart and it goes away. Rags seem to have forgotten to ask the player if he wants the deal and just jumped on the fact that Barca want to sell.
So its all gone very public without any agreement in place. Any self respecting club would distance themselves as soon as its even suggested the player doesn't want it.
Not the rags - they just dont know when to quit. So at this point even if he signs it just looks awful.