Photo by M. Donato/FC Bayern via Getty Images
A transfer that already wasn’t going to happen looks even less likely to happen based on the chatter out of Spain.
Philippe Coutinho returning to Liverpool, as a general concept, exists somewhere in the space between entirely impossible and probably entirely impossible, with no sign that the club has any intention of even exploring the possibility.
Between Coutinho’s age—he’s now 28 years old—and wages, the manner in which he left the club—he paid out of pocket just to get away from Liverpool—and the current financial uncertainty due to coronavirus, it’s simply not an option.
Not that that’s stopped the rumour mongers talking about it as though it just might be. Though the latest chatter out of Spain has the impossible possibility of Coutinho returning to the Reds taking a bit of a hit. From Barcelona’s pride.
As Mundo Deportivo spin it today, Liverpool have been in contact with Barcelona, but due to the Catalans feeling a little fleeced by Coutinho’s sky-high transfer fee, they wouldn’t consider a loan or below-value sale of the Brazilian to the Reds.
If it were another club, then just maybe they would to get his wages off the books and recoup what they can. To loan or sell him back to Liverpool, though. And to do it at a major discount. Well, the optics of that would make it impossible.
Whatever the truth of the matter on Barcelona’s end, though, what we are certain of is that, having passed on Timo Werner at £50M due to financial uncertainty, Liverpool won’t spend big—either on transfer fees or wages—this summer.
