Barcelona are desperate to sell Philippe Coutinho this summer to avoid having to pay even more money to Liverpool as part of the deal that saw him move to Spain in January 2018.
According to Sport, who labelled the Coutinho deal the most ruinous in Barca’s history, the club are keen to act before he reaches 100 appearances, triggering another £20million payment.
As it stands, the attacking midfielder has played 90 games for Barcelona in all competitions, with just 14 of those coming under Ronald Koeman this season.
After returning from a year on loan at Bayern Munich, where he scored 11 goals and won the Champions League despite being a peripheral figure in Hansi Flick’s squad, Coutinho has failed to make much headway back at his parent club.
It was widely assumed that selling Coutinho, even for an initial £105million fee, would negatively impact a Liverpool team that seemed to be coming together under Jurgen Klopp’s leadership.
Instead, the forward line of Roberto Firmino, Mo Salah and Sadio Mane meshed to devastating effect, taking the Reds to the Champions League final just four months later.
A year on and they went a step further by winning the competition, and then followed that up with a first title of the Premier League era last season.
Liverpool’s style of play adjusted to account for the loss of Coutinho’s creative gifts, but it arguably contributed to them becoming even more ruthlessly efficient both on and off the ball.
Meanwhile, Coutinho has often felt out of place and underappreciated at the Nou Camp, which has been beset by controversy and infighting in recent years.
The Brazilian international has been linked with Arsenal and Leicester City, with a fee of £35million believed to be enough to secure his signature.
