It dominated headlines for months this past summer, and it’s claimed Barcelona reportedly intend on reigniting their interest in Liverpool ace Philippe Coutinho in January.
The 25-year-old emerged as the priority for the Catalan giants as they pushed until the end of the summer window to reach an agreement after the Brazilian did his part by handing in a transfer request.
As reported by Mundo Deportivo, although they didn’t succeed in signing him, they haven’t given up and intend on trying again as they’ll launch the same offer as last time. That is an initial €80m plus €30m in variables, but the problem remains that it doesn’t meet Liverpool’s demands.
It’s added that the Merseyside outfit had demanded €200m for Coutinho, and it would seem strange if they negotiated that position moving forward and so Barcelona are again set to fall way short of the price-tag.
Further, having now featured for Liverpool in the Champions League last month, he will be cup-tied for the knock stage stage this season if he were to join Barcelona in January.
Nevertheless, the report claims that the interest hasn’t gone away and ultimately it will be down to Barca to continue to put the pressure on and try and find an agreement, assuming that Coutinho wants to move midway through the campaign.
The former Inter ace has re-integrated well since returning to Jurgen Klopp’s line-up, scoring three goals and providing an assist in six appearances in all competitions.
As he now enters his peak years, he’ll hope to add to his tallies of 56 goals, 45 assists in 269 outings in his professional career, but time will tell whether that’s with Barcelona or Liverpool.