Barcelona Transfer Rumors 2018: Barça, Liverpool Meet to Discuss Philippe Coutinho Transfer
Brazilian midfielder Philippe Coutinho may already have one foot out the door as Liverpool and Barcelona meet to discuss his potential transfer to Camp Nou.
According to Yahoo Sports' Duncan Castles, representatives from the two clubs met on Wednesday and Liverpool seem to be willing to part ways with their star midfielder if Barcelona are prepared to meet the asking price.
That is welcome news for fans who have been waiting for Coutinho to join Barça.
Reports can't seem to agree on the figure that the Blaugrana will have to pay for Coutinho, but the transfer fee is expected to be higher than the €140 million (around £125 million) they spent to get Ousmane Dembélé from Borussia Dortmund.
The Telegraph's Chris Bascombe has reported that Barça are set to table a £140 million (around €157 million) bid for Coutinho. That would make his move to Barcelona the third most expensive transfers in football history behind only Neymar and Kylian Mbappé's to Paris Saint-Germain.
Meanwhile, Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp has continued to say that ongoing transfer saga involving Coutinho hasn't really been a distraction this season.
"These young boys are used to this from a really early age and are used to ignoring things around them. If they are smart enough they ignore most of it," Klopp said, via the Telegraph.
"This story is not around since yesterday. It has been around since the summer and did you at any moment get the impression this team is distracted because of transfer rumours? No. We are focused on what we have an influence on. All the rest we have to ignore. It is clear there is a lot of excitement around," he added.
Coutinho has been playing really well after a slow start to the 2017–2018 campaign and he has already recorded seven goals to go along with six assists in 13 league games.
Interestingly, he has been held out of Liverpool's FA Cup game against Merseyside rivals Everton on Friday.
