BARCELONA MAKE A FRESH BID TO BRING IN COUTINHO
▶ Primera Liga side back in for Liverpool midfielder after having first bid rejected as they look to strengthen their squad following the departure of Neymar to PSG
Liverpool are reported to be facing a losing battle to keep Philippe Coutinho with media reports in Spain claiming that a deal for the Brazilian to depart for Barcelona is close to being reached.
Barcelona had a £72 million (Dh342.9m) bid for the midfielder rejected earlier in the summer, but the Primera Liga club, following the sale of Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain for a world record fee of €222 million (Dh957.6m) have refocused their attentions on bolstering their squad ahead of the start of their domestic campaign next week and targeted Coutinho.
The Catalan club’s chief executive Oscar Grau arrived on Merseyside on Monday evening to speak to the Spanish club about a second bid for Coutinho, with ESPN Deportes claiming last night that a deal was set to be completed for the transfer to happen.
Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu had on Monday said that the club planned to react quickly to the sale of Neymar with some business of their own.
“The money we will spend sensibly, strictly and wisely,” he said.
“It will be used to improve the club, and with this it means that we are in a great position to sign players.”
Jurgen Klopp, the Liverpool manager, has been vehement in the past that Coutinho was not for sale.
He said over the weekend that he wanted to keep the Brazilian to maintain strong competition in the club’s attacking ranks as they prepare for the challenge of pushing for the Premier League title while competing in the Uefa Champions League.
“Everybody thought ‘he’s going, he’s going, he’s going’ but so far nobody is going,” Klopp said.
“If we stay together like this there will be a few hard decisions because they can’t start all together. Then we have to see how this works.”
Coutinho attended Liverpool’s training session yesterday as the club look forward to their opening game of the season at Watford on Saturday, but he did not take part in any action as he recovers from a minor back problem.
Meanwhile, Galatasaray are trying to bring out-of-favour Barcelona forward Arda Turan back to the Turkish club, president Dursun Ozbek said yesterday.
Turan was an unused substitute in Barcelona’s 5-0 friendly win over Chapecoense on Monday, even though manager Ernesto Valverde made 11 changes, leading to speculation about his future.
Ozbek said of Turan: “We are working on his transfer.”