Liverpool transfer news: Barcelona will sign Philippe Coutinho this month - Duncan Castles

And they could end up paying more than £110million to get their man - so desperate are they to lure the Liverpool star to the Nou Camp.

Barcelona have £200million burning a hole in their pocket following the world-record sale of Neymar to PSG.

Coutinho is on their radar to replace him but two bids have already been knocked back by Kop chiefs, who are adamant he's not for sale.

That's despite the player wanting to go and handing in a transfer request last week.

Castles told The Transfer Window podcast: "Barcelona are already in a very difficult place after losing Neymar against their will and losing to Real Madrid (in the Super Cup) intensifies that.

"I was speaking to a contact in Barcelona this morning asking where has the bidding gone, are Barcelona increasing their offer to Liverpool and the answer was the bidding is going to go to whatever it takes to get the player now, after the result to Real Madrid.

"Earlier in the week I was hearing they wouldn’t go above €120m, which would seem a sensible compromise given they initially bid €80m then went for €100m and got turned down.

"In the background to this, while Liverpool were briefing the press that there had only been one bid from Barcelona, the €80m bid, and that Barcelona had not come back and made any offers to them or further discussions, the reality was Liverpool were speaking to Barcelona and negotiating a deal.

"They had told Barcelona the price they were looking for was €150m.