Gabby Agbonlahor has urged Newcastle United to secure the signature of former Liverpool star Philippe Coutinho.
The 34-year-old suggested that the Reds could benefit as a byproduct of such a deal by covering the debt Barcelona owe with regard to the remaining payments for the midfielder in question.
“I’d target those kind of players where you don’t have to pay them silly money. I’d take [Phillipe] Coutinho too,” the ex-Aston Villa hitman told talkSPORT (via the Metro).
“We were talking about the Manchester City takeover and they had Robinho come in.
“Coutinho’s not really playing his football properly at Barcelona, and Barcelona will take anything – they still owe Liverpool for him, don’t they?
“Barcelona could say: ‘You cancel that Liverpool debt, and you can have him!'”
The Brazilian playmaker has enjoyed a less than exceptional experience in La Liga, with injury a dominant feature of his time in Catalonia.
It’s a slightly misleading claim given that finance experts have already ruled out the possibility of us getting any further fees from the Spanish giants given that the debt in question was bought by a third party.
As Kieran Maguire acknowledged for the Mirror, we’ve received all the money from the Coutinho deal though Barcelona still owe the relevant payments to the third party.
It’s a shame that this means we wouldn’t benefit from a deal between Newcastle and Ronald Koeman’s men, of course, though we should be glad to have the saga already put to bed.