The situation with Philippe Coutinho at Barcelona is an interesting one, because the Catalans aren’t in a position to demand a massive fee for him up front.
He was outstanding for Liverpool but didn’t blossom in Spain, while a loan spell with Bayern Munich hasn’t exactly gone to plan either.
Clearly Barcelona want to just sell him for as much as possible, but any buyers will want a loan spell to see if he’s still worth a sizeable fee, and that could cause some hold ups.
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According to The Mirror, Chelsea have been in talks with Barca about signing the Brazilian, but there’s been delays and the issue of what happens after the initial loan spell could derail things.
They state that Barca want any loan spell to include an obligation to buy, while Chelsea would actually be prepared to pay more to make it an option rather than an obligation.
As a result there’s still no agreement in place, and that could be ideal for Spurs.
They go on to say that Tottenham are heavily interested and would be prepared to accept those conditions, but they may also need some time to get their finances in order.
The report alludes to Spurs furloughing some staff and it’s not clear how much they can spend going forward, so that could delay things from their end too.
It seems clear that a deal is there to be done if anyone will accept those demands from Barcelona, it just remains to be seen who agrees to it first.