Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho is not going to move to Barcelona in the January transfer window, according to La Liga expert Guillem Balague.
Barcelona have been chasing Coutinho throughout this summer but the Catalan giants eventually failed to land the flamboyant midfielder in the off-season.
Although many papers are suggesting that Barcelona are still pursuing the midfielder, La Liga expert Guillem Balague believes that Barcelona will not make bank breaking decision in the January transfer window.
“I never thought Coutinho’s move was on,” Balague told Sky Sports podcast ‘Transfer talk’. “I’ve been reporting from last summer that Liverpool have not put a price for him. They did not want to sell and exactly the same thing is happening now. We’ll see what happens next summer but that’s where we stand now.”
Balague also suggested that Barcelona are desperate to land Coutinho and claimed that the Catalans are generating the rumors in hopes that Liverpool will sell their main player.
He continued, “Barcelona are very pessimistic about the possibility of getting Coutinho to force Liverpool’s hand. Of course they may try to put in an offer but it starts to sound a lot to me like Barcelona are trying to… they ‘leaked’ that Liverpool are asking for €150m and they haven’t, but by saying that the next thing you can say is ‘look, for that money we cannot and shouldn’t have him’.
“If he goes to Barcelona, he could not play in the Champions League. The league at the moment is quite clearly in favour of Barcelona, so you would be signing him to win the cup.”
“More than that, I think financially Barcelona can go for Coutinho and Griezmann and if they feel they can get Griezmann that will be their top priority.”
Between Greizmann and Coutinho, the Brazilian will be a much better fit for Barcelona as his style is similar to Barcelona legend Iniesta, which might mean the flamboyant midfielder will be a direct replacement to the ageing Spaniard.
