Philippe Coutinho Finalizes Barcelona Move

Reliable English sources, including Paul Joyce, Chris Bascombe, and finally James Pearce, have announced that Philippe Coutinho has finalized his move to Barcelona. The fee is set for £142m, though we don’t yet know the full specifics.

While the rest of the Reds head to Dubai for warm weather training in advance of their league game against Manchester City next weekend, Coutinho will be headed to Spain to put pen to paper. The signing could be unveiled tonight or tomorrow—looks like the Spanish press finally got one right after all.

This appears to once and for all put an acrimonious end to Coutinho’s Liverpool career, one that has seemed inevitable since last July. Liverpool fans had hoped to delay the inevitable until next summer, but the player was desperate to get his way this month.

Less than one week into this transfer window, and Liverpool have already gone from the high of landing Virgil van Dijk to the low of saying good bye to their most creative player. It remains to be seen how else this transfer window will play out or how Liverpool will fare without Coutinho in the second half of the season.