Rumour Mongering: Real Madrid Helping Barcelona to Land Philippe Coutinho

Once a rumoured Liverpool transfer target, always a rumoured Liverpool transfer target. So it goes in the land of rumour mongering, and today we’ve got an old name back on the news, with reports out of Spain claiming the Reds are plotting to sign Real Madrid attacking midfielder Mateo Kovacic.

Diario Gol claim Liverpool have a verbal agreement in place with Real Madrid and that the Premier League side will go through with it and sign Kovacic from Madrid if Barcelona manage to pry Philippe Coutinho away from them either in January or next summer. Which, honestly, seems a touch odd.

Mostly because Madrid agreeing in principle a deal that would only go through if Coutinho was sold to rivals Barcelona would seem to be an agreement that does little but encouraging Liverpool to sell Coutinho to a rival, safe in the knowledge they can get in their supposed top replacement if they do.

So. Rather odd. Which, in the land of rumour mongering, is pretty much all one needs to rule it out completely—it’s just too convoluted, too fanciful, and not to mention would seem to rather work against the selling club’s interests. Which isn’t to say Kovacic might not be available for the right price.

Madrid are struggling this season and Kovacic remains down the pecking order. With a rebuild likely next summer for the Spanish giants, then, Kovacic could well be on his way out. But Madrid won’t be waiting on whether Liverpool sell Coutinho to Barcelona to deal him if he’s surplus to requirements.

Meanwhile, from the Liverpool end, it seems likely the club have moved on from Kovacic since they were linked with him years back, and a more likely Coutinho replacement appears Monaco’s Thomas Lemar, who remains a top young talent even if his production has suffered this season.