Liverpool still owed a massive £35.5m by Barcelona
Liverpool is owed a massive amount of money by Barcelona.
The Mirror has taken a dive into the accounts produced by the Spanish side and found out that they still have to pay the Reds a serious fee.
Liverpool isn’t alone in this. Barca still needs to pay a variety of clubs £174 million in transfer fees, but the amount owed to us puts the deal to bring Philippe Coutinho to La Liga into perspective.
Coutinho left the club in 2017/2018. Three seasons later Barcelona still needs to pay Liverpool a fee that could have signed Gini Wijnaldum this summer. Or Thiago. Or a decent down payment on Diogo Jota.
£130.5 million was what it cost to remove Coutinho from his Anfield shackles, and what has Barcelona got in return? A husk; a shadow. If Coutinho’s performances in Spain were a cologne, it would be the vapour that clings to the bottle long after the bottle is empty.
This season he has two goals and two assists from 12 league appearances but is currently out with a torn meniscus. It total Coutinho has just 23 goals, 14 assists from 90 Barcelona games in all competitions.
Oh, and don’t forget the Catalans were so unhappy with his contributions that they sent the attacker to Bayern Munich on loan, where he scored one of the goals in their Champions League humbling of Barca.
Barcelona paid over £100 million up front for Coutinho, and that allowed Liverpool to spend the money that they needed to take the team to the next level. In came Virgil van Dijk, Alisson Becker and Fabinho.
The spine of the team was strengthened immeasurably, a culture of signing world-class players was embedded, and nobody else has had their head turned by other clubs since Coutinho.
This next wave of money could help once again. Thank you, Barcelona.
Other Liverpool transfer news
In other Liverpool transfer news, the club has rejected bids from two Greek clubs for one of their first-team stars. Find out who right here!
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