We’re not sure if you heard, but, over the summer, Barcelona were interested in signing Liverpool’s Coutinho.
It’s quite understandable if you missed out on it, to be fair.
After all, it was one of the more quiet stories of the summer, free of fake back injuries, emailed transfer requests, alleged €200m asking prices, ‘very serious’ faces and ‘funeral atmospheres’.
Anyways, since it was quite an easy saga to forget, we thought we’d remind you all about it, and update you on what is happening in Catalonia following Barcelona’s failed attempts at forcing Liverpool’s hand in selling their star.
Rest assured, it’s good news.
According to Mundo Deportivo, the failed attempts at bringing in their two targets (Coutinho and Angel Di Maria) on transfer deadline day have forced them to start looking elsewhere.
That doesn’t mean they’ve entirely given up on Coutinho, as we’re fairly certain they’ll give that one another go next summer, but, for now, they’re exploring their possibilities, which includes focusing on a former Liverpool target.
That (young) man is Marseille’s Maxime Lopez, who openly admitted back in May to rejecting the Reds in favour of staying in the south of France at his boyhood club.
In fact, Barcelona have already enquired with those close to the player to see if he would be interested, and lo and behold, he would.
A pair of directors have allegedly already met with the youngster’s agents, but Andoni Zubizarreta, Marseille’s director of football, anticipated this by tying the starlet down until 2021.
That means that if Barcelona did officially come knocking, the French side, free of a crippling need to sell their best players now, could ask them for the moon and back (which would probably equate to €50m+).
To be honest, we’re not 100% sure going after a midfielder Liverpool are quite keen on is the best way of patching things up in order to sign Coutinho down the line.
Then again, Barcelona’s board seem to think they’re mightier than everyone else, so…
