Barcelona’s sly claim that they got Coutinho for much cheaper than he would have cost them last summer has angered Liverpool.
The Catalans yesterday announced the £142m transfer, with the Brazilian leaving Liverpool after five years at the club.
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But Barca, despite having got their man through months of dirty tricks, including getting kit sponsor Nike to prematurely announce the deal, continued the politicking via Barcelona’s vice-president Jordi Mestre.
“The club has always been interested in signing Coutinho, the difference to last summer is that there was a big cut in price,” he said.
“We won’t state the numbers because Liverpool don’t want us to, but there was a big price cut…”
But according to Chris Bascombe in the Telegraph, Liverpool have completely rubbished these suggestions, adamant that in the summer, the club’s one and only stance was, ‘Not For Sale’.
The fact Coutinho remained at Anfield until the winter suggests this was the case, as there’s no way we would have allowed him a cheaper exit following a world-class start to the season – no matter how badly he wanted out.
We just hope Liverpool never sell Barca our best player again. The job now is how we cope with it, as after Luis Suarez exited, we invested the money poorly and paid for it.