Towards the end of October, around the time when that awful ‘The Best’ award ceremony took place, an article appeared on Sport’s website in Spain about a meeting between Kia Joorabchian and Antero Henrique taking place in London.
While they could have been talking about anyone and anything, the automatic assumption here was that Coutinho was the topic of conversation, seeing as Paris Saint-Germain have a long vested interest in the Liverpool star, and his agent meeting with the French club’s director of football is quite suspicious.
According to the Catalan outlet, Henrique’s message was simple: “Don’t listen to Barcelona’s offer.”
Of course, Sport say that’s going to be difficult because Coutinho has it ingrained in his mind that he wants to succeed at Barcelona, and going to Paris Saint-Germain isn’t part of his career plan.
Well, Le10 Sport on Thursday have their own version of the events, and they don’t write off the Ligue 1 leaders that easily.
In fact, they reckon that Neymar’s presence in Paris is a great boost for the French club, as the Brazilian superstar and Coutinho are great friends, with the former Barcelona winger pushing for his new club to sign his mate.
However, with Liverpool said to be asking for €80-100m (that seems very optimistic to us) for their forward, the financial aspect of the deal is problematic, and only some big sales would allow them to pull it off.
This is where Edinson Cavani comes in, with Neymar allegedly using his entourage to whisper in Paris Saint-Germain’s ear that he wouldn’t be against the Uruguayan being sold next summer if it meant Coutinho arriving.
Frankly, this all seems incredibly far-fetched, and that’s our stance on the matter for now.
We’ll have to see whether this develops or not, but, right now, nope.
