Barcelona Set to Return With Third Monster Bid for Coutinho as Liverpool Turn Down £90m Offer

Liverpool have turned down a bid of £90m from Barcelona for star man Philippe Coutinho, according to Sky Sports.

The latest offer was comprised of was an €85m (£76.8m) fee up front, with €15m (£13.6m) paid later in add-ons, though the money in question has not changed Liverpool's stance on whether they will sell the player. 

Barca also saw a bid of £72m turned down around three weeks ago, though they now have more money to play with following the sale of Neymar to PSG.

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Liverpool "consider the matter closed", however the The Times report that the Reds should now be braced for a third offer for the Brazilian. Barca are prepared to make a new bid worth £108.4m to tempt the Premier League club into selling, as they seek out star names to replace their former number 11.

Reports in Spain have suggested in recent days that a deal is close, and that Coutinho could even be a Barcelona player by the end of the week given his desire to link up with the likes of Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, but those claims have been rubbished by some of the British press. 

Jurgen Klopp also recently told Barca that they are wasting their time in pursuing the player, and effectively ruled out Coutinho's exit from the club this summer. Coutinho is believed to be happy at Liverpool and while open to a move to Barcelona, he is not expected to push a move through on his end.

Klopp said: "Yes (he is not for sale). Phil is a very important player for us. He’s trying to get back his rhythm but there’s no doubt about his quality. He’s very smart both offensively and defensively.

"The nice news for us is that he’s still young. He has improved a lot since I’ve been here and he can still improve a lot. I’m not surprised that any club is interested in players at Liverpool. The very important message is that we are not a selling club and that’s how it is.

"We believe in working together and developing together. We want to make the next step together and for this we need to stay together."