Barcelona desperate to avoid paying Liverpool £18m Coutinho instalment

Coutinho TEAMtalk

Barcelona are desperate to sell Philippe Coutinho next month so they do not have to pay Liverpool another instalment of the £142million transfer fee.

Coutinho made the move to Barcelona from Liverpool in January 2018 for a club-record fee – it made the Brazilian the second most expensive player of all time.

The deal was made up of numerous add-ons and one of those, according to Sport, is that Liverpool are owed an £18m payment if he reaches 100 games for the club.

The 28-year-old has currently played 90 official matches for the club having featured 12 times this season.

Barca boss Ronald Koeman is a fan of Coutinho and the attacking midfielder is back in favour at the Camp Nou.

However, the grim financial outlook means that Barcelona are open to offers for Coutinho and several other players. According to The Athletic, Barca would sanction Coutinho’s sale at around the £45m mark.

 

 

Loans for Junior Firpo, Samuel Umtiti and Riqui Puig are also possibilities next month.

Coutinho plea

One thing is for sure Barcelona will not be keen to trigger the 100-game payment. The former Reds man would already have reached a century of games had he not been loaned to Bayern Munich.

He enjoyed great success while on loan at Bayern Munich last season. He won the Champions League, German cup and the Bundesliga.

He was strongly linked with a move to Arsenal. The Brazilian also made a personal plea to Jurgen Klopp to bring him back to Anfield over the summer.

“The Premier League is one of the most exciting leagues in the world,” Coutinho told World Soccer magazine.

“To have the chance to play with a team like Liverpool will always be something I will feel grateful for. It’s impossible to say what might or might not happen in the future. But right now my only focus is on being successful with Barcelona.”