According to Spanish publication Sport, Liverpool have placed a new £133million price tag for Barcelona target Philipe Coutinho, and they are hoping it scares the Catalan club away.
The Brazilian reportedly agreed to a transfer months ago as he wants to join countrymate Neymar, but the Merseyside giant aren’t ready to let him go for any cost whatsoever.
Barcelona are only willing to pay £71million at most for the highly-gifted Brazilian and have also thought of adding a player to the bid just to break the Red’s resolve.
The financial crisis of Barcelona are well-known – an issue that led to their inability to pay the asking price on Marco Verratti from Paris Saint Germain.
It’s clear that breaking the world record transfer fee for a player this summer is therefore not within reach of Barcelona’s money-spending Chiefs at the moment.
The Anfield club’s latest action might have just successfully kept interested clubs off Coutinho, or at least Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp would hope it does so for the rest of the summer transfer window.
The versatile Coutinho remains most integral to manager Jurgen Klopp’s project at Anfield Stadium, and the Reds are set to give their all in ensuring he remains at the Red half of Merseyside.
