Representatives of Barcelona have informed MSI that the Spanish giants want to take Mascherano to the Nou Camp when his loan deal with Liverpool expires at the end of this season but, under the terms of the loan, Liverpool can make the deal permanent by buying him outright for a fee in the region of £17 million before June 30 next year.
Last time I checked (last week) Barcelona officially denied the interest, so I don't know where this is coming from. Certainly not Barcelona, because if you search "Mascherano" in the paper that everything related Barcelona included rumours are echoed, you only can find this article
http://www.sport.es/default...._PK=803
And they make clear the rumour doesn't come from Barcelona, but MSI, the enterprise, obviously in an attempt to increase the value of their player.
On October 22, Mascherano said that "he wouldn't bite the hand that feeded him", an Spanish expression to say he's grateful to Rafa because he took out him from West Ham, and he said he was grateful, so quite simply, we don't have to worry much.
I don't know why some journos up there insist on echoing baseless rumours after being denied. *shrug*