Liverpool scrapped Philippe Coutinho transfer return after being quoted £100m by Barcelona… who were willing to accept £65m from any other club – The Sun

LIVERPOOL scrapped any plans to bring Philippe Coutinho back to Anfield after being quoted £100m for the unhappy playmaker.

There is bad blood between the Anfield club and Barcelona after Coutinho – like £65M Luiz Suarez before him in 2014 – was lured to the Camp Nou.

That means Barca were determined to make Liverpool pay through the nose for his return.

The Catalans giants were prepared to accept offers of around £65M from any other club for the player they signed from Liverpool for £145M.

Just not from Liverpool who made it clear to their rivals when Coutinho left in January 2018 that they were deeply unhappy over the way they believed the Brazilian’s head had been turned.

Boss Jurgen Klopp all but admitted in his media conference before Friday’s opening clash with Norwich that Coutinho had been a serious subject of discussion within Anfield.

And clearly it was a sore subject.

Asked if there was either any interest or possibility that Coutinho would come back before Thursday’s transfer deadline he stone-walled by saying : “No answer.”

It is understood that Barca were told by Liverpool that if they wanted to talk to any prospective Anfield targets in future it would cost them £15M just to start discussions.

Coutinho was desperate to go back and play in front of the Kop after a miserable time in which he has scored 21 goals in 75 games in Spain.

Liverpool are understood to have even begun preparing the ten-bedroom house he, his family and his entourage occupied when he was on Merseyside.

But any possible deal collapsed once boss Jurgen Klopp was told of how much Barca wanted from Liverpool.

Klopp lost patience with him and froze his out of his side as the transfer unfolded.

And chairman Tom Werner said: "I only have good things to say about Philippe.

“But I think he left Liverpool because he wanted to play for one of the two big Spanish clubs.

"We tried to convince him that we had the club moving in the right direction and that he could experience great nights in the Champions League if he stayed in Liverpool.

"Coutinho lost a lot of support for the manner in which he forced through a move to Barcelona."

Even so Klopp was prepared to forgive and forget.

He spent next to nothing the this summer’s transfer window bringing in youngsters Sepp van der Berg and Harvey Elliott as well as free transfer cover ‘keeper Adrian.

He also warned that having in the previous 18 months spent £236M on Virgil Van Dijk, Xherdan Shaqiri, Alisson, Fabinho and Naby Keita “bills had to be paid.”

Coutinho, 27, would have been this summer’s exception.

And he even turned down a loan move to Tottenham in the hope that he could make an Anfield comeback having insisted that he would only return to the Premier League if it was with his former club.

But any hope of that was gone once Klopp and his FSG owners discovered the price Barca wanted for him – blood money, in fact.

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