Liverpool deny claims from Barcelona vice-president Jordi Mestre that the reason Philipe Coutinho moved clubs this week is that the Reds lowered their asking price.
On Monday, Barcelona announced the £146 million signing of Philippe Coutinho after an agreement had been met with Liverpool last week.
Although £146 million is undoubtedly a large sum of money, Barcelona vice-president Jordi Mestre claims that “there has been a significant reduction” which helped the transfer along. Liverpool’s original asking price was too high and, according to Mestre, the reduction ensured a deal could be agreed.
Mestre believes that Barcelona were quoted a £176.5 million fee in August but this cannot be true as Liverpool made their stance on Coutinho publicly known that the player was not available at any price.
Barcelona had three bids rejected in the summer and according to Paul Joyce of the Times, the only ever asking price that Liverpool requested of Barcelona was the £142 million fee that was agreed last week.
“Due to a contractual issue and due to Liverpool’s desire, we cannot provide the exact data, but there has been a very significant reduction [in price],” Mestre said. “This time the reduction in their price was enough for us to authorise the transfer.”
Given that Mestre can’t say much about what he believes Liverpool were asking for in the summer, he’s still managed to say an awful lot.
There was an issue with the agreement of a deal between Liverpool and Barcelona after Nike leaked an advertisement which included Coutinho as a Barca player before a deal had been agreed.
Subsequently, Coutinho forked out £9m of his own cash to help facilitate a transfer and ensure that his dream of moving to Barcelona didn’t fall through – he is also committed to paying a further £2.5m in the future.
Coutinho is now officially a Barcelona player and has signed a contract which includes a £355 million buyout clause – far higher than the one included in Neymar’s contract when he was in Spain.
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