Although it’s unknown when the 2020 summer transfer window will open for business again, it seems Chelsea are trying to get ahead of the competition with news that talks are underway with Philippe Coutinho.
The Brazilian was signed by Barcelona in a €160m deal, and remains the Catalans’ most expensive acquisition.
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Despite a reasonably good start to life at the Camp Nou, Coutinho’s form quickly dipped and he was loaned to German giants Bayern Munich.
Barca would surely have hoped that the Bavarians might’ve taken up a purchase option on the player, but the Brazilian has similarly underwhelmed during his time with his Bundesliga outfit.
That has let in Chelsea, and with the coronavirus epidemic affecting the current valuations of players, they could well get the player for much lower than Barca originally paid for him.
The Sun suggest it could be as little as £75m, with Sport also reporting that the Blues and Barcelona have already opened talks for the player to move to west London, so clearly both are willing to do business.
Though it’s expected Barcelona will try and strike a hard bargain, Sport also note their move for Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez, so some money coming in would be preferable to none at all.