Barcelona are reportedly interested in letting Philippe Coutinho leave on loan for the 2018-19 season and Arsenal seem to be one of the clubs keen on bringing him on board.
Last month, there were reports that Man United wanted to sing the player but those rumours eventually fizzled out and now it looks like Arsenal are being linked with the Brazilian.
While some rumours claim the Gunners might be able to pull off this transfer since Barca only want around 27 million pounds in order to let Philippe Coutinho leave on loan but we do not feel the forward would be too keen on joining the North London outfit especially since what his agent had said last month.
“I don’t know about those stories,” Joorabchian had told talkSPORT.
“Bartomeu was very clear with me, saying he doesn’t want the player to leave and he has a future there.
“They made a tremendous effort to bring him over, he is Barcelona’s most expensive signing in history and the second or third most expensive signing in the world.
“..as far as Philippe goes it would be an extremely difficult to a near-impossible move.
“It would be very difficult for Philippe to play for any of Liverpool’s rivals because he has such a great affinity towards Liverpool. His time there was fantastic.
“Yes, but like all big players at some point, you want to experience a different thing in your career because your career is very short, but it [his Anfield exit] has no reflection on the fact his heart and affinity is very much with Liverpool.
“So it would be hard for him to go to a rival.
“Every time we’ve spoken about it we’ve had that same conversation, he would find it hard to play for another club in the Premier League.”
Initially, it was being reported that the Gunners are favourites to sign Philippe Coutinho but now as per the major publications in London, Arsenal have rebuffed these claims stating they are not in pursuit of the former Liverpool man.
UPDATE:
The Arsenal boss though has been quick to come out and reveal that his club are not planning to make a move for the Barcelona misfit.
He told Cadena SER(as reported by Goal): “We’ve never talked about Coutinho.
“He’s a splendid player, but we haven’t talked about Coutinho at any time.”
And now according to Mundo Deportivo, Philippe Coutinho too has made his intentions pretty clear and he is not willing to leave Camp Nou on a loan deal. Instead, he wishes to stay back at the club for one more season and prove his worth to Ernesto Valverde and Josep Bartomeu.
