Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has revealed that Liverpool would only sell Philippe Coutinho for €200m, a figure they didn’t even come close to.
The 25-year-old was heavily linked with a move to the Catalan giants all summer, especially after he handed in a transfer request to seemingly push the move through.
However, it failed to materialise as an agreement was never reached between the two clubs, and now Bartomeu has leaked further details of negotiations with the Merseyside outfit.
“I will not say how much we offered, but [Liverpool] asked for 200m euros” Bartomeu told Spanish TV, as reported by Sky Sports.
“We weren’t going to give €200m or €150m – we decided to step away from such an expensive market, our offer was less than €100m, with add-ons it could have reached €120m.”
Bartomeu went on to insist that the money involved in football has now persuaded Barcelona to invest in La Masia and the club’s academy to strengthen their squad in-house again after a number of high-profile and expensive signings.
Nevertheless, these latest revelations suggest that reaching a deal with Liverpool for Coutinho was never even close, as a hefty €80m stood between the demands and the offer.
It remains to be seen whether or not Barcelona try again in January or perhaps even next summer for the Brazilian playmaker, but with Coutinho now reintegrating himself at Anfield, question marks would have to be raised over an exit and whether Barca can even afford the fees being demanded based on Bartomeu’s comments.