BARCA GO BIG FOR COUT

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player is determined to go after he turned down the offer of a massively improved contract. But the club’s owners have made it clear that any agreement must be on their terms. That means no repeat of last summer when Barca floated huge headline “offers” only to propose a baseline deal which never rose above £82m. Instead, Liverpool will demand a base figure of around £120m, with the additional monies made up of reasonable, achievable payments, dependent on success.

If the Catalan club are prepared to meet Anfield demands for Coutinho (below, seen driving out of training yesterday) and pay a large chunk of the fee up front, it will pave the way for a deal to be completed now, as opposed to an agreement to move next summer.

That means Barca would need to offer more than the £130m they will pay Dortmund in total for Ousmane Dembele, and be exceeded only by PSG’s £198m capture of Neymar, and the £166m the same club will eventually pay for Kylian Mbappe.