While Liverpool Football Club remain absolutely adamant that Philippe Coutinho will not be leaving the club this summer, most of the supporters accept that if a proper valuation of the Brazilian midfielder is offered, he will be on the move.
The news that Coutinho has handed in a transfer request did not go down well with large sections of the fans, with some going as far as to say the club should let him rot in the reserves for a year due to the manner in which he has changed his tune and is pulling for a move to the Spanish giants.
That's going too far, but it's clear that if Barca do want to make a deal happen, they are going to have to pay up. Reports that a £114 bid had been rejected raised a lot of eyebrows, as that is a massive fee that could go some way to repairing the holes that remain in Klopp's squad, but as Paul Joyce of The Times revealed, that deal was not quite what it looks like.
Barca were only willing to offer £82m up front, with the rest of the deal being worked through add-ons.
The breakdown of Barcelona’s bid would have seen Liverpool receive a guaranteed payment of £82.1 million with a further £36.5 million linked to the progress of Coutinho and his new club.
Of those add-ons, Barcelona wanted to pay a specific sum if Coutinho followed the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in lifting the Ballon d’Or, the award for the best player in the world. They also proposed payments linked to the club winning the Champions League in future.
But however achievable those triggers are viewed, Liverpool are insistent that they will not sell Coutinho despite the player submitting a transfer request last Friday. He has told Jürgen Klopp, the Liverpool manager, he does not want to play for the club again.
Barcelona have already had bids of £72 million and £90.3 million dismissed.
If Barca want their man, they are going to have to do better than that. You can't take arguably the best player from a club that don't need to sell and only guarantee two-thirds of it.
If they manage to secure Ousmane Dembele and Marco Verratti, who are also embroiled in ongoing sagas at the moment, then Liverpool will feel confident they can retain the services of Coutinho despite his claims that he no longer wishes to play for the club.
In that case, we could see some backtracking come September 1st, unless Barca pony up the dough.
You can read Paul Joyce's views on Barcelona's latest offer in full over on TheTimes.co.uk.
