Barcelona pulled out all the stops to sign Philippe Coutinho in the biggest transfer saga of the summer window, but it appears the Blaugrana lied with their side of the story. Leaked emails have shed light on the Catalan’s attempts to sign the Brazilian, proving that Liverpool were right with their version of the events.
The Copa del Rey champions, who were frantically searching for Neymar’s replacement, identified the Premier League ace as their ideal target. Ernesto Valverde’s side made three bids for the 25-year-old, but as we all know now, all attempts amounted to nothing.
Whilst Coutinho’s desire to move to Camp Nou was concrete, Liverpool’s intentions of selling were not. This is as revealed by a leaked email between the two clubs, which has been made public by German newspaper Der Spiegel.
In the emails, Liverpool sporting director Michael Edwards made it clear to Barcelona that their star player was not for sale. The English club rejected a £90m and asked the Spanish giants to “stop harassing” the Brazilian.
"I politely request that you stop publicly and privately harassing Coutinho. No amount of money will change our minds," read the message sent by Edwards to Barcelona executive director Oscar Grau.
Barcelona were also accused of negotiating with Coutinho behind his employers’ back. Grau, however, denied this, brushing it off as fabrication from the English club.
Furthermore, there was a 20-page agreement with Coutinho on August 31 that would have seen him earn €115m over five years. It now appears that Barcelona’s claims that the deal fell through due to Liverpool asking for astronomical fees on the final day isn’t entirely accurate.
Match details, result and original broadcast info
Leicester City 2 - 3 Liverpool
September 23, 2017 12:30pmKing Power Stadium (Leicester, Leicestershire)This match has ended. Below are the original Live broadcast details for this match.
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