Barcelona will offload Coutinho permanently if a club offers £57m at the end of this season, according to the Mirror.
That’s slightly more than a third of what they paid for him in 2018, in the deal which is still the third biggest football transfer of all time behind Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.
Coutinho didn’t settle at Barca, booed by their fans at times – and wasn’t able to establish himself as a starter at Bayern Munich on loan this season before it was curtailed by COVID-19.
Former LFC captain Phil Thompson has implored Liverpool to re-sign Coutinho, although we think there is basically zero possibility.
“They are probably looking at that creative midfield player,” he told Sky Sports, cited in the Standard. “Would you take Coutinho back? I would, in a heartbeat. I think he’s a creative genius.
“You look back at his Liverpool career and he was absolutely terrific. He’s not too old and I still think he could come back.”
Coutinho is not far off his 28th birthday, and there’s no way Liverpool would spend £50m+ on a player in that age bracket – especially on a player who did the dirty on us not long ago.
The reality is that our style has changed without Phil, and it’s made us a team more capable of winning trophies.
We loved the Brazilian at Anfield – we really did – but Jurgen Klopp warned him that he shouldn’t seek pastures new and he was proved right.