Barcelona Issue Liverpool With A Laughable Philippe Coutinho Ultimatum

By Simon O'Keeffe     AUG 19, 2017

Barcelona have resorted to bizarre measures to convince Liverpool to sell Philippe Coutinho to them.

The Spanish giants lodged a third for the Brazilian playmaker on Friday, worth up to £118m including a series of add-ons, but it was flatly rejected as Liverpool insist that he will not be leaving Anfield this summer.

According to the Times on Saturday, Barca’s reaction to this has been to issue an ultimatum to Liverpool – accept the offer or they will walk away from the table.

Simply put, Barcelona have told Liverpool to either accept their terms and sell a player that they clearly don’t want to sell, or they will withdraw the offer and end their interest in signing him. Quite how this is supposed to act as a deterrent is unclear – particularly as Liverpool have told Barcelona to stop bidding for him – but the thinking from the Spanish side is surely that the Premier League side will eventually change their minds and realise that £118m is an obscene amount of money and accept the offer.

Either that or this move is aimed more at the player in a bid to coerce him into pushing Liverpool further to let him leave before the end of the month.

In any event, Barca’s desperation has led them to offer a sizeable chunk of their Neymar windfall for his international teammate, but with the transfer deadline fast approaching and the squad still looking a little light in areas, new signings are still essential.

Far from it being a deadline for Liverpool for relent, Sunday could well be treated as a deadline for Barcelona to accept that Coutinho doesn’t look like he’ll be moving to Camp Nou, so it would probably be in their own best interests to move on.

In the meantime, Coutinho is still yet to feature for his side in a competitive fixture this season as, Jurgen Klopp insists, he continues to recover from a back injury.