From Brazil: Contradicting updates on Coutinho’s Liverpool situation leads to big confusion

Depending on who you want to believe, it’s either good news or bad news for Liverpool on Tuesday regarding Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona.

We’ll start with the ‘good’ news.

According to Brazilian website UOL, the club have now decided not to sell the Brazilian to Barcelona.

In the outlet’s latest update on the situation, they claim that even after considering the last €110m bid from the Catalan side, the Reds decided to stand by the manager’s will and keep the player at the club.

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Agent Kia Joorabchian is reportedly putting a lot of pressure on Liverpool to accept the deal, but a ‘long conversation’ at the club resulted in the opposite decision.

On Monday, the very same UOL claimed that Barcelona were confident on getting Coutinho and that people close to the player believed his bags were packed for the move.

But Liverpool would have to agree to the transfer as well, and with even Sky saying Coutinho would only leave “if a deal can be done amicably“, it seems it’s not hapenning this time. Unless Barcelona or Paris Saint Germain come up with a new offer and change the club’s mind.

However, over at ESPN Brasil, the story is very different, with the outlet claiming Liverpool star Philippe Coutinho has reportedly asked to leave the club, with sources close to the player confirming he’s told Jurgen Klopp of his desire to go and sign for Barcelona.

It’s claimed that agents Kia Joorabchian and Sam Kohansal are working on the transfer, and believe that their clients Coutinho and Paulinho will both move to the Catalan club this window.

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The outlet claims that a formal transfer request isn’t ruled out, that way the player would take the responsability for the exit and don’t leave the club in a bad position with the fans days before the start of the Premier League.

Coutinho’s agents have reportedly asked Barça to make a new bid so they can put more pressure on Liverpool. ESPN say there was only one offer so far, of €80m, which has already been turned down by the Reds. Now a bid of over €100m is expected.

This is a difficult one for us, as both outlets have a decent track record, so it’s quite strange for them to be contradicting each other like this.

If you were to ask us, the gut feeling right now would probably be to lean more towards ESPN, as they’re the ones with the most recent update.

Still, regardless of how we feel, all we can do for now is wait.