Liverpool Reportedly Open to Coutinho Pre-Agreement with Barcelona

For the right price, Liverpool will now consider a deal to let Philippe Coutinho leave—in the summer. Barcelona tried to sign Philippe Coutinho last summer but relied more on bullying tactics and unsettling the player than offering fair market value, never putting up more than £82M guaranteed despite their incessant claims of interest in the player. Liverpool rightly baulked—not only was it too little, but it came too late.

Barcelona’s interest came too late for Liverpool to have properly reinvested the money, even if Barcelona hadn’t taken to making derisory offers while releasing stories through the Catalan press about their magnanimous offers—an approach that in the end only served to further set Liverpool’s stance against dealing with them.

Six months, though, can change things. S...