Barcelona are ‘ready’ to buy Liverpool star Philippe Coutinho in January after a fruitless pursuit during the summer
BARCELONA are "ready" to buy Liverpool star Philippe Coutinho in January after a fruitless pursuit during the summer.
The La Liga giants failed with countless bids during the last window, with the Reds reportedly asking for £180million for their "Little Magician".
Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool rejected a host of bids up to around £138m... with Barcelona director Albert Soler saying the Reds were pricing them out of a move.
Soler claimed: "After weeks of negotiations, yesterday Liverpool asked us for €200m (£180m) for the player. We will not put the club at risk.
"We have always worked with the mission not to put at risk the heritage and the viability of the club which is owned by the members.
"The fact that PSG came up with €222m [for Neymar] caused everyone to know that the club had money.
"When you go to the market and clubs know that you have a lot of money, the requests were exorbitant."
But now, Barcelona are "ready" to land the Brazilian star, according to club CEO Oscar Grau.
Grau claimed: "We are ready to buy Coutinho in the winter market, or any player the technical staff request.
"But it is important to adjust ourselves, so if there are to be arrivals, there must be exits as well.
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"We must forget about the price paid for Neymar last summer.
"After taxes we received about €188m (£169m) in income and a direct financial impact on the club's treasury of €144m (£129m)."
According to reports in Spain, Coutinho is confident Liverpool WILL allow him to leave Anfield this winter.
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