We wonder when Barcelona will get over the fact they missed out on Coutinho this summer…
President Josep Maria Bartomeu has again discussed our Brazilian, claiming we told the Spaniards they could have him if they offered €200m, or £178m.
Hilariously, he’s tried to make the Catalan club appear as football do-gooders, only rejecting the chance to sign our no.10 because they didn’t want to get involved in the ‘dirty’ transfer market and would prefer to invest that money into the Academy!
“I will not say how much we offered, but [Liverpool] asked for 200m euros,” Bartomeu told Sky Sports.
“We weren’t going to give €200m or €150m – we decided to step away from such an expensive market, our offer was less than €100m, with add-ons it could have reached €120m.
Money has come into football from outside the game and made [the transfer market] more expensive, which explains what happened with Coutinho.
“We have to make these investments in La Masia and the club’s academy, we must respect the rules.”
This is genuinely approaching satire…
Barcelona were repeatedly told in no uncertain terms that Coutinho wasn’t for sale for any money – every time they submitted a bid. Liverpool did NOT give them a price at which he’d be sold and the reason Barca didn’t buy him is because we refused. It has absolutely nothing to do with the self-righteous reasons Bartomeu has presented.
And besides, they spent the summer tapping up our player, so they care as little about the ‘rules’ as everybody else.
We really hope we never sell another good player to Barcelona again.
Safe to say, Liverpool’s fans are having none of it:
Barcelona easily lie about transfer fees and figures. I strongly doubt what they are saying.
— fred (@papakwmefrimpng) September 19, 2017
Barca tell the world that Liverpool wanted €200m for Coutinho.
The world shrugs its shoulders and remembers Barca lie about everything.
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) September 19, 2017
— David Howells (@Thaidai3) September 19, 2017
Sean Spicer would do a job for them. Cleaning up, papering over the cracks – bit like a holding midfielder, only a Nazi
— BB (@goddammitbrian) September 19, 2017
Ignore. He is the Donald Trump of Barca
— Varun (@DJV9000) September 19, 2017