Philippe Coutinho Reportedly Rejects Tottenham Hotspur Move

Barcelona appear desperate to offload ex-Red attacking midfielder Philippe Coutinho. A loan move, a permanent deal, it doesn’t especially matter—just as long as somebody is willing to meet their valuation of the player so that they can get him off the books and bring Neymar back to Catalonia.

At least that seems to be the consensus amongst the press, with widespread reports that the 27-year-old Brazilian has now been offered to any and every club that could potentially afford him, from Paris Saint-Germain to Manchester United to Arsenal to, most recently, Tottenham Hotspur.

And today, Sky is reporting that Coutinho has turned down Spurs. The main takeaway for Liverpool fans is that, after a potential move to United was deemed impossible by his agent due to their rivalry with Liverpool and with Arsenal not interested, Coutinho won’t be playing for another English club.

At least for the coming season, it appears talk of there only being one English side that Coutinho could play for—something his agent was quick to tell the world back when the United links were still a thing—will hold true. Coutinho will stick to his word, and won’t play for one of Liverpool’s competitors.

Alternately, it could simply be that 18 months after forcing his way out at Anfield to get his dream move, the player is unwilling to give up on that dream and believes that, with a little luck and hard work, he can still be a star at Barca. Either way, though, it looks like Coutinho won’t be facing Liverpool this season.

At least unless the two sides face off again in the Champions League, in which case Liverpool and the club’s fans will just have to try to serve him up another reminder of what he left behind.